KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
The banned students union of University of Kashmir Saturday said that the “witch hunt” launched by government in New Delhi against the students who commemorated the “Judicial hanging” of Afzal Guru in Jawahar Lal Nehru University, is yet another example of “how insecure the Indian ‘collective conscience’ becomes when Kashmir Issue is raised in Kashmir or in the Mainland of India”. “That too in the campus of a University established on the name of India’s first prime minister (Jawahar Lal Nehru) who, in the heart of Srinagar i.e. Lal Chowk promised Right to Self Determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir to decide their future political aspiration,” a statement issued by Kashmir University Students Union (KUSU) said this afternoon.
“The Right to Self Determination (RSD) as demanded collectively by the people of Jammu and Kashmir, is not any revelation from the JNU campus but a well-known fact known all across the world. However, under the garb of anti-national activities, students (Indian by origin) who support the RSD of Kashmir are considered untouchables by their own people and government alike, thus bringing much shame to the people at the helm of affairs,” the statement said.
Notably, Jawahar Lal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) president is behind bars while Prof S A R Geelani has been charged for sedition after two separate programs were held at JNU and Press Club of India on the eve of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat death anniversaries.
“KUSU, banned of all its activities in the University of Kashmir campus altogether, stands in solidarity with all the individuals/groups/organisations/intellectuals/civil society members who support Kashmir’s Right to Self Determination as demanded and promised alike by the United Nations,” the statement maintained. “India, that has been bragging of being the world’s largest secular liberal democracy has become a state with iron fist and a quasi-totalitarian fascist power after the new regime came into power for its own people. People of J&K have been facing and resisting the occupation of the Indian state, but the majority of Indian people have been time and again mis-informed, mislead and their opinion manipulated by ‘Media Trials’ to cover its dirty track record in Jammu and Kashmir.”
“Cracking down on the ‘right to free speech and expression’ of students and personalities who exercise it, is only exposing the political nature of Indian state which feels threatened by any person, organisations, groups, etc. who raise a voice of dissent against the Indian state,” the statement said.
