Srinagar, Oct 20 (KNS): The Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference chairman, Sajad Gani Lone has said that he is ashamed by the targeted killings of civilians in the Valley and also scared about what more might happen. 

Sajad Lone, in an interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire said he feels the worst is not over and stater that he couldn’t rule it out that he was scared that there could be more targeted killings and that is what he is worried about. 

Lone also said the people of the rest of India have turned their back and let down the Kashmiri people. 

He said that they have gone to sleep, but yet the paradox is only pressure brought by the people of India can change the way the Modi government looks at and acts in Kashmir. “This means that just when the Kashmiri people need the support of their fellow citizens south of the Banihal line they have, instead, been let down by them.”

Speaking about Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s administration in Srinagar, he said it’s on another planet. 

Lone said the administration does not understand the Kashmiri people and in many instances it has brought in officials and police officers from outside the state who may be very good people but do not understand the situation and do not have a connection with the Kashmiri people. 

He said the mass arrests of 700 or 800 is not an answer or a solution to the problem by calling it “a randomised response”. 

“This can only embitter and alienate the people because many who are innocent will be wrongly picked up.” 

Lone, however, does not accept that the situation is returning to the dark days of the ’90s for two reasons. First of all, he said, what happened in the ’90s has, in one shape or form, continued thereafter for several decades and it’s only the intensity that has differed. 

“Secondly, there are very few Kashmiri Pandits left in the Valley. You will not have a mass migration as you did in the ’90s. A few will leave and they will return when things improve.”

Lone said that he was more worried about the non-local workers, who are leaving in hundreds or thousands. 

He said they are critical to the functioning of the Kashmiri economy and stated that any of these workers anyway leave in November. “This time they are going a little earlier. Secondly, they will return when winter is over.”

Speaking about the majority community in Kashmir i.e., Muslim population, Lone said they were “pained” and “angry” at what was happening. 

He also said that there was a pall of fear that has spread through the Valley and everyone is worried or scared about what could happen. 

Lone said he does not accept or give credit to interpretations that suggest that the targeted killings of Hindus and Sikhs is an attempt by militants at ethnic cleansing of the Valley, nor does he accept that the killings are designed to cut-off Kashmir from the rest of the country and perhaps provoke a massive reaction against Muslims in other parts of India. 

Lone said that the last 20 days have proven that the claim made by the administration, both in Delhi and Srinagar, that the situation in Kashmir is normal is just rhetoric as the truth is very different. 

He also said that statehood should be restored immediately, followed immediately by fresh elections.

Asked if he believed the Modi government was likely to listen to such advice, Lone said the only people who can make the Modi government listen are the people of India. However, he added, the people of India have turned their back on Kashmir and let them down. 

He said that Kashmiris feel betrayed by the fact that the rest of the country “has gone to sleep” as far as Kashmir is concerned. (KNS)