Terming the statement of Defence Minister of India, Manohar Parrikar that the infamous Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) cannot be revoked from Jammu Kashmir as a pat on the back of armed forces, Hurriyat (M) Monday said Indian forces present in the state had been indulging in killing of unarmed civilians and getting away with it due to the impunity provided to them under AFSPA.Stressing that the Indian Defence Ministry’s claim of the “presence of around 250 Militants in the state was a change in the ground situation in Jammu Kashmir,” the conglomerate said at the same time the ministry did not explain why there was a need to have a presence of 7 lakh Indian forces and black laws like AFSPA in Jammu Kashmir.Making it clear that in reality AFSPA was meant to suppress the political aspirations of the people of Kashmir and their just struggle, the APHC said unless the draconian law named AFSPA was not revoked, unarmed and innocent persons would continue to get slain as AFSPA was being used to spill the blood of innocent, unarmed Kashmiris as it gives a license to kill to the forces in the state.
Appealing the international rights bodies to take serious note of the aggressive policies of India, the conglomerate urged them to use their influence for ending human rights violations in Jammu Kashmir.Condemning the continued house arrest of its Chairman, Mirwaiz Dr. Moulvi Muhammad Umar Farooq, senior Hurriyat leader Mukhtar Ahmad Waza and APHC Media Adviser, Advocate Shahid-ul-Islam, and also detention of Muhammad Yasin Malik at Central Jail Srinagar besides the detention and house arrests of dozens of other resistance leaders and workers, APHC said these tactics cannot cow down resistance leadership and freedom-loving people of Jammu Kashmir from carrying the resistance movement forward. (KNS)