Srinagar, Dec 17 (KNS): Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Chairman, Mohd Ashraf Sehrai on Monday said pro-freedom leadership and workers remained under house detention or lodged in police lock ups and were not even allowed to visit the families of those killed and mourn with them.
“Such is the height of cruelty,” Sehrai said in a statement issued to KNS, adding “with every killing, entire Kashmir is turned into a military fortress. Internet and other communication lines are snapped so that people do not protest even on social media platforms."
Sehrai strongly condemned authorities over imposing curfew to foil proposed peaceful freedom march. “The leadership and activists are continuously caged and political space is being denied. The forces are resorting to the oppression to carry their unauthorized rule. We are not being allowed to mourn even on our slain youngsters,” he said.
“The resentment shown by youth in Kashmir is not just a passion but a growing resentment among youth and it is the outcome of unresolved and lingering Kashmir issue, unending curbs on political activities, stubborn attitude that has created political uncertainty in the state,” Sehrai said.
Terming the judicial probe ordered by the government into Pulwama ‘Massacre’ as ‘farce’, Sehrai said, “We know the reality and outcome of these probes in which not even a single forces personnel was booked since three decades infact they were awarded and promoted at the cost of human lives.”
Commenting on Army chief Bipin Rawat’s statement, which he termed as ‘absurd’, Sehrai said, “The Kashmir resistance movement for right to self-determination is an indigenous movement fully supported by the people of Kashmir so the General Rawat’s statement does not match with the ground situation, where the forces engage their military might to suppress the peoples genuine voice for their birth political right and hence are subjected to worst form of human rights violations at the hands of forces.”
“Bipin Rawat’s war mongering and hyper nationalism exposed his professional and moral bankruptcy when he stated ‘stones are more lethal than pellets and bullets’,” he added. “India has declared war against civilians in the State, nowhere on earth is such brute force used against unarmed civilians,” he said.
Extending condolences to bereaved families including a Indonesian Girl who also lost her husband, Sehrai said, “We share the grief and pray for the strength to the bereaved families to bear irreparable loss and pray for speedy recovery for those injured during forces shoot out.”
“In a place like Kashmir, where conflict has left thousands of families devastated and even not spared Indonesian girl and left her widowed, the tragedy that has befallen Saima (Indonesian Girl) is just another chapter in the region’s history filled with pain and suffering,” he said. (KNS)