Srinagar, Feb 14 (KNS): Hurriyat Conference (M) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has said promised referendum is the only solution to Kashmir problem. He said the ‘occupation’ is pushing our educated youth to a path of ‘armed resistance’, which is a grave concern for us.
He was addressing a panel discussion titled “Kashmir-breaking the impasse” which was part of the two day India Conference held at the Harvard Kennedy School for Business and Government. He addressed through a recorded video as he could not attend the conference personally.
Mirwaiz said the more than 7 hundred thousand Indian troops are used as ‘instrument of control’ to hold on to the territory of Kashmir and its people against their will, making Kashmir the ‘most militarized zone’ in the world.
While discussing the Kashmir conflict, Mirwaiz said, “The past 70 years have been an endless struggle for Azadi (freedom) not occupation, they want the democratic right to choose not coercion and we are dearly paying for it.”
He said, “All our basic rights and civil liberties have been either snatched or curbed, to prevent any challenge to the state.”
Elaborating the Kashmir issue Mirwaiz said Since 1989 when the peoples struggle for self determination became a mass movement, more than 80 thousand Kashmiris have been killed 10000 innocents disappeared and around six thousand buried in mass graves, and it continues.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp Channel
“Humiliation and harassment at the hands of the forces is an everyday feature in the life of a Kashmiri. This occupation is pushing our educated youth to a path of armed resistance, which is a grave concern for us.”
Adding that, repeated mass uprisings in 2008, 2009 and 2010 or in the most bloody summer of 2016 are met with the same response -ruthless repression.
“In four months 120 civilians were killed, including 8 women, over 17,000 injured, youngest among them four year old Zohra with lacerations to her abdomen and legs. But most shocking was that 972 people who were shot in the face, with eyeballs ruptured by metal pellets, many among them losing eyesight permanently including 14 year old Insha,” Mirwaiz said.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said that there is something fundamentally wrong with a system that barricades an entire people for months.
“Obviously there is something fundamentally wrong with a system that barricades an entire people for months on end, blinds youngsters, kills on a daily basis censors information imposes draconian laws only to keep up a facade of normalcy and a facade of control, it is not only unethical, unjust, immoral but also unsustainable. The status quo has to change.” Mirwaiz said.
Kashmir conflict is primarily about the people of Kashmir. The most simple and direct way for that is to, hold the promised referendum. (KNS)