Srinagar: Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Tuesday said that killings by state and severe subjugation has become a norm in Jammu and Kashmir “which is forcing many among Kashmir’s educated youth to take up arms.”
In a statement issued here, Mirwaiz, who continues to be under house arrest, said that killing Kashmiris with impunity and severe “repression upon them, shows cowardice of Indian state that makes great claims to world leadership but does not want to resolve the Kashmir dispute and instead wants to contain it through its military might.”
“This approach will neither alter the fact of the dispute nor will people of Kashmir give up their demand for its just resolution in accordance with their aspirations,” Mirwaiz said.
Under the “draconian laws like disturbed areas act, (DAA) and armed forces special powers act (AFSPA)”, he said, forces have been given absolute powers to kill at will, with no fear of prosecution or accountability.
In fact, he said, even a hint towards these laws and the consequent mayhem they let loose upon Kashmiris is immediately brushed aside by the state, claiming that it will “lower the morale of the forces”. “Instead such acts are valorised and rewarded by the state,” he added.
Mirwaiz said with state killings and severe subjugation becoming the norm ,many among Kashmir’s educated youth “unfortunately feel compelled to take up arms and resist this oppression and fight for their birth right.”
Mirwaiz said all space for peaceful agitation for “fundamental political right stands completely chocked and crushed.”
“There is no way left for the younger generation to give vent to their feelings and aspirations peacefully and democratically.”
Mirwaiz said an atmosphere of fear and intimidation looms large everywhere in Kashmir. “People feel completely unsafe and vulnerable to the forces whims everywhere, even in their homes.”
He said the recent killings of two youth in Shopian district and another young boy a day earlier bear the painful fact. “Such killings by forces in Kashmir have become routine since past three decades.” He said every day people of Kashmir carry the coffins of youth on their shoulders and there is hardly any village or lane in Kashmir which hasn’t been turned red with the blood of innocents.
Mirwaiz said while pro-freedom leadership stays caged or in lock ups and are not even allowed to visit the families of those killed and mourn. With every killing, entire Kashmir is turned into a military fortress, especially the downtown areas and Internet and other communication lines are snapped so that people do not even protest.
“Then a sham of a probe is enacted to settle the situation back to ‘normal’ as if Kashmiri are fools and cannot see through this charade.”
He added: “They know the reality and outcome of these so-called probes in which not even a single forces personnel was booked let alone punished.”
Mirwaiz said that the local “collaborators if they had any feeling and conscious would have stepped down long back but to expect such things from the pro-Indian parties is day dreaming.” “They have equally been responsible for our miseries.”
He said Kashmir ‘dispute’ was political and can’t be resolved militarily “however much the state may try.”
“New Delhi has to accept the ground realities and resolve it politically. A meaningful and sustained dialogue with the involvement of all stakeholders is the way forward to stop further bloodshed and destruction.”
Meanwhile, Mirwaiz expressed his heartfelt condolence on the demise of famous religious scholar, Aga Syed Muhamamad Fazullah Mosivi Al-safavi and expressed solidarity with the bereaved family. Mirwaiz termed the death of Aga Syed as a big loss for the Kashmiri nation and prayed for ehis highest standards in janah.
