Says Yeshwant Sinha’s vindicates ‘our stand’
Srinagar: Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani on Saturday said that Indian leaders were the responsible for this grim situation in Valley and their “unrealistic” approach was the basic cause of “human tragedy” in the Jammu and Kashmir.
“It is the reason that our youth are losing their precious lives. We have sacrificed more than 6 lakh people for our struggle against illegal forceful occupation and how much more blood these heartless occupiers need to quench their thirst,” he said in a statement issued here while paying rich tributes to the four militants killed in Pulwama.
Citing the example of the recent interview of Indian former Finance Minister and BJP leader Yeshwant Sinha that ‘use of force to quell rebellion in Kashmir is the state policy of India and we hold on to Jammu and Kashmir only by dint of the fact that we have our armed forces there’, Geelani said that right from 1947 the Kashmir issue has been seen only through the prism of military might, while as aspirations and emotions of people have always been ignored.
He said that Indian leadership’s denial of the historical and ground realities and “parroting” the ‘Atoot Ang’ rhetoric was the biggest blunder by India and it’s giving birth to a tragedy which has engulfed more than three generations of a ‘helpless nation.’
“It has not only threatened the peace of the subcontinent but has also put the two nuclear nations at the verge of catastrophic collision,” the octogenarian leader said.
He said Yeshwant Sinha’s statement was neither surprising nor “did we expect anything substantial form Indian arrogant leadership.”
“ It vindicates our stand that most people under the toxic influence of power and might, fail to accept truth,” he said in a statement issued here.
He said that it was due to this arrogant mindset that India prefers to be in denial mode since the tragedy of Kashmir was born in 1947.
Claiming to be the largest democracy with multi cultural society and a fast growing economic hub, he said, it can’t dare to accept the bare and internationally recognized issue not because they are not in know of the fact but only because they believe that they can crush the genuine people’s movement with their military might.
He said that Indian former minister has accepted the hard reality.
“Had these assertions not been right then more than a million forces with latest weaponry would have not be patrolling every street here, then draconian laws like AFSPA, PSA, and Disturbed Area Act etc. would not have been enforced, every patch of land here would not have been soaked in blood of Kashmiries, more than 10 thousand innocents would not have been disappeared after arresting them in the broad-day-light in presence of their family, more than 800 unmarked graves would not have been declared a gross human rights violation by word community, rape and molestation of women would not have been used as a weapon of war, hundreds of martyr’s graveyards would not have been spread through length and breadth of vale, and there would not have been any mass uprising especially in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2016 where hundreds of people mostly school going teenagers got killed by bullets, blinded by pallets and injured by Indian and state armory, thousands of pro-freedom workers and leaders would not be languishing in far flung jails and interrogation centers in and outside state and there would not have been more than 18 United Nations resolutions signifying and certifying the disputed nature of the state, there was no need for UN to establish their office in Kashmir.”
He said that Jammu and Kashmir was an internationally recognized dispute and can’t be changed by the military might. He advised Indian politicians to shun their ego and stubbornness and accept the ground realities and come forward to address this basic issue according to the wishes and aspirations of people of Jammu and Kashmir, the statement added.
