People in large numbers hailing from different areas and all walks of life attended today a simple but impressive function organized by AIP at Handwara to pay tributes to martyrs of Handwara and Kupwara massacre carried by Indian troops on 25th and 26th January at Handwara and Kupwara respectively,” reads a statement issued by Kashmir legislator Engineer Rasheed.Rich tributes were paid to the martyrs and special prayers were held on the occasion. Speaking on the occasion AIP Supremo and MLA Langate Er. Rasheed appealed for an introspection within the movement at all levels. He said, “The nation has sacrificed in all forms and it is now duty of the leadership to make sacrifices result oriented and ensure less loss to human lives. Bigger claims apart, leadership has failed to take care of the families of martyrs, most of whom are living in miserable conditions. Just crying and seeking justice may yield nothing unless Kashmiris don’t follow the right way and leadership will lay down a strategy that force New Delhi and Pakistan to listen them. While remembering every single martyr is our moral obligation but unless we don’t frame a mechanism that ensures redressal of issues of families of martyrs, we will achieve nothing.”
Er. Rasheed questioned New Delhi’s intentions and designs and said that while India is celebrating its republic day, Kashmiris have been deprived of justice and known killers of Kashmiris are roaming free. Er. Rasheed said those befooling Kashmiris in the name of main stream and separatist politics are to be taken to task for creating confusions, as the ongoing movement is not creation of any particular political thought but a mass movement where every Kashmiri has his credibility, sentiments, future and self respect at stake. Kashmiris have to be united at all costs and understand that their fight is much bigger and unless they don’t force their leadership of all thoughts to give up ego, only failure will be their destination. He reiterated that govt. of India and Pakistan must not make everybody a stake holder but besides political parties the real key to resolution lies with the militant leadership who have changed the discourse in 1989, when leaders were confused and contradicting all that what they preach today. Er. Rasheed also condemned use of brutal force in Shopian which resulted in death of a seventeen year old student and said that the collective conscience of all political leaders can force New Delhi to mend its ways.