Hurriyat (M) Saturday said the ruling regime had once again resorted to might and dictatorial approach to cage people in their own homes by imposing strict curfew, restrictions and other forms of curbs on their movement to sabotage the Referendum March to Lal Chowk called by the unified resistance leadership.When the Hurriyat (M) Chairman, Mirwaiz Muhammad Umar Farooq broke his house arrest to march toward Lal Chowk as per the unified resistance leadership’s Referendum March, he was arrested by a large contingent of government forces outside his residence and detained at the local police station.On the occasion, while talking to the media persons present outside his residence, the Mirwaiz said that the standard response of the ruling regime to all forms of protest and resentment is use of brute force and military might which blows the top off of its tall claims of democracy and peoples representation.Mirwaiz said that the struggle of the people of Jammu and Kashmir for their basic and just rights was completely indigenous and not fuelled by any external force. Rights from 1931, it is the people of the state who have been offering sacrifices of their lives, honour, wealth and all which India and rest of the world are witness to.
Stating that if Government of India (GoI) really believes that only a handful of misguided youth were running the resistance movement in Kashmir, then all protest programs including the Referendum March would have been allowed. But fear of exposure before the people of india and international community makes them jittery and they clamp down on people and leadership.Mirwaiz said that GoI and the international community know very well what the people of Kashmir are struggling and striving for and want is it that they want.Mirwaiz said it is the responsibility of the international community to help Kashmiris in getting their right to self determination and let them decide by a referendum whether they want to remain as part of India, Pakistan or be independent.
He reiterated that people of Kashmir would not rest and continue their peaceful struggle until they get their right to self-determination.Expressing grief over the killing of Suhail Ahmad of Lethpora who was critically injured in the action of the government forces and succumbed to his injuries at a hospital on Saturday, the Hurriyat (M) Chairman said more than 60 civilians had been killed while thousands injured in the ongoing uprising and among the injured many were battling for their lives while many more had been handicapped, maimed and blinded. Mirwaiz expressed concern over the slapping of the infamous and draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) on a number of youth in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
Meanwhile, to sabotage the Referendum March call given by the unified resistance leadership, the government forces launched crackdown and overnight raids on the houses of APHC leaders, office bearers, workers and freedom-loving youth, arresting hundreds of them.Condemning human rights violations in Kashmir valley and government’s oppressive tactics, the spokesman said use of lethal pellet guns on the peaceful protestors in Chenab Valley’s Doda, Kishtwar and Bhaderwah areas besides Srinagar, Beerwah, Kupwara, Handwara, Sopore, Baramulla, Bandipora, Ganderbal, Pulwama, Budgam, Islamabad, Kulgam, Shopian and other areas was extreme form of barbarism.He said the government forces were indulging in war crimes by forcing their way into hospitals, beating up the injured damaging the hospital infrastructure and not allowing ambulances carrying the injured to reach hospitals, which was highly condemnable. (KNS)