Srinagar, Feb 16 (KNS): Reacting to the statement of Indian Army chief, General Bipin Rawat in which he called for dealing harshly with people protesting during operations against Kashmiri freedom-fighters and treating them as anti-national, Chairman Hurriyat Conference (M) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said the threat issued by General Bipin Rawat to the people of Kashmir is unfortunate and reflects a tyrannical mindset towards the people of Kashmir.
In a statement issued to KNS, Hurriyat (M) Chairman said the army chief needs to ask the Executive of his country as to why is the institution of army being used by them to crush a mass political movement of people demanding their political right and why do people at the obvious risk to their lives gather? Only because they see them as freedom fighters pushed by the arrogance of Indian state which is not willing to address the Kashmir dispute politically and pushing educated youth towards armed resistance.
Mirwaiz said the Indian Army chief should be in know of the fact that people of Kashmir were fighting for their right to self determination since 1947 and India had left no stone unturned to unleash every known type of atrocity on Kashmiris. Only in the popular uprising of 2016 the tyrannical acts of the government forces have left more than 100 sons of soil dead, thousands injured with pellet guns, scores of them blinded and maimed forever.
Hurriyat (M) Chairman said before labeling Kashmiris as anti-nations, General Rawat should realize that Kashmiri nation was not fighting any nation or any political party but striving for its just rights which the Indian state had dealt with by martyring tens and thousands of Kashmiris, subjecting over ten thousand people to enforced disappearances, burying thousands in unmarked graves, damaging property worth billions of dollars, harassing people, torturing youth with third degree in interrogation centres, oppression and suppression, arrests and detentions, restrictions, custodial killings and even sending people to gallows in fake cases.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp Channel
Mirwaiz further said instead of issuing threats to break the will and resolve of the freedom-loving people of Kashmir, it would be prudent for the Indian Army chief to accept the ground realities in Kashmir where government forces open indiscriminate fire on unarmed youth and peaceful protestors and detain and arrest innocent civilians in fake cases to pack detention centres, police stations and jails.
Mirwaiz said instead of reining in his trigger-happy, unbridled, arrogant forces, people were being threatened to face the consequences of staging peaceful protests, which would deteriorate the already worse situation.
He said the Indian military and political leadership had no other option but to come to the grips of the reality that Kashmir issue cannot be dealt with military might or with threats of war but by involving all parties to Kashmir dispute in a meaningful and result-oriented dialogue process, which could also help end political uncertainty in entire South Asia.
Meanwhile, the Hurriyat (M) spokesman condemned the ruling class for imposing severe restrictions on the movement of the people, conducting an arrest spree and harassing people in south Kashmir in general and Kulgam in particular and said the ruling class had left the entire area at the mercy of Indian forces, making the lives of the people miserable.
Denouncing the molestation and beating up of the womenfolk in Pulwama at the hands of government forces, the spokesman said these forces were making general masses their target and getting away in absence of any accountability due to the unbridled powers they have under black draconian laws like AFSPA. (KNS)