Srinagar: Kashmir Centre for Social and Development Studies (KCSDS) Thursday said that ‘its government, not people, which is suffering hysteria’ and is hiding behind ‘fashionable terms to hide its failure’.
Kashmir Civil Society which held a sit in against the unabated braid cutting incidents happening in valley termed it an act of ‘terror’ against women.
“It is a direct assault, not only the body, but at the dignity of a woman,” KCSDS member Dr Altaf Shah said.
Shah claimed that the incidents of braid cutting ‘falls into pattern’, to ‘instill fear among people’.
“Last year we witnessed world’s first mass blinding, of Kashmiris during the uprising, and now they have resorted to this shameful act of braid chopping to instill fear among Kashmiris,” Shah claimed.
He said that the government, instead of unraveling the mystery behind the acts of braid chopping, is trying to trivialize what he called ‘grave human rights violations against Kashmiri women’.
“The state government is hiding behind these fashionable terms of mass hysteria and phobia to hide its failure. It’s the government which itself suffers from phobia and hysteria,” Shah said.
Noted poet Zareef Ahmad accused ‘Indian state’ of using ‘different tactics from time to time to deter Kashmiri people from demanding their basic right to self-determination’.
“The present incidents of braid chopping seems to be an another ploy by various agencies to break the will of people. As was the case of ghosts during early 90’s, when millitancy was at its peak, but all these ploys will fail to deter Kashmiris from demanding their basic rights,” Zareef said.
Hameeda Nayeem, a university professor and a former Head of the department Linguistics, was Thursday put under house detention.
Hameeda was to participate in the sit in. She is wife of senior Hurriyat leader Nayeem Khan.
