In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, senior leader of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, has said that the open threat of jails and incarceration to the Hurriyat leadership by members of the Indian ruling Bharatiya Janata Party will not change the reality that the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan needs a resolution.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, in a statement issued in Srinagar, strongly denounced the assertion of senior BJP leader Sunil Sharma that the “Hurriyat leaders had only two options left, either to join the pro-India politics or go to jail”.
He said that the APHC resolutely stood by its principled stand that the Kashmir conflict had to be resolved, a fact admitted by both India and Pakistan.
“The resolution has to be to the satisfaction of the entire people of Jammu and Kashmir, the main party in the conflict.” Hurriyat Conference seeks lasting peace and stability and good neighborly relations in the region, an immediate consequence of the settlement of the conflict, he added.
Such belief is at variance with the hyper-nationalist outlook of the ruling dispensation in India at present, who have detained Hurriyat leaders, activists and others in jails or at their homes, for this reason,” he highlighted.
Mirwaiz said the open threat of jail and incarceration by the BJP member was unfortunate and authoritarian.
He said unlike such people, the Hurriyat had no vested interest or political ambition, it solely represents the aspirations of the people of IIOJK with dignity and goodwill towards the people of India and Pakistan.
The APHC leader deplored that “arrests have been weaponless to harass people and instill fear in them”. He said hundreds of Kashmiris irrespective of their age and background, including religious scholars, were languishing in prisons and detention centres under draconian laws awaiting trials that are delayed. He said the condition of many prisoners who have been in jail for a long time was pathetic.
Their health had considerably deteriorated and they have developed serious health issues leading to the death of some in recent times, he said, adding that “repeated appeals to the Indian government for the release of detainees are ignored”.
Farooq deplored that the youth in IIOJK was being relentlessly arrested under labels like over-ground workers, narrative militants, and militant sympathizers.
