KL Report
SRINAGAR
While challenging the statement of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Syed which he made in Jammu & Kashmir Assembly that “only one political prisoner was in jail”, Hurriyat Conference (G) Saturday said there are presently more than 500 political prisoners languishing in different jails within and outside the state.
In a statement to KNS Hurriyat (G) spokesman Ayaz Akbar said, “Among them are Shakeel Ahmad Yatoo (district president Shopian), Mohammad Shaban Dar (district president Kulgam), Nasir Abdullah (Tehsil president Pattan), Dr. Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, Fayaz Ahmad Lone, Mohammad Yaseen Yatoo, Zubair Ahmad Turay, Asif Gul and Sameer Ahmad Gojri like prisoners who are directly related with the Hurriyat.”
“Mufti sahib had either deliberately lied to mislead the House or he has been provided wrong information by the police and the related agencies in this regard,” he said.
The Hurriyat (G) reiterated its stand that Kashmir is an internationally accepted political dispute and this region is reckoned as the most volatile conflict zone of the world. “Ao any detainee related to this dispute is a political prisoner according to the international laws and can’t be treated as criminal,” he said.
While commenting over the statement of the Mufti in which he talked about the assurance of employment opportunities for the West Pakistan refugees in the private sectors, Ayaz Akbar said, “This is an unreasonable thinking that why would the state bear the burden of those people who are not the citizens of this land and who’s sufferings are not due to our faults. There are 28 states in India and these refugees can be settled anywhere in these states.”
“The issue of the refugees is of course a human issue but its solution doesn’t lie in finding job opportunities for them in the disputed region. Jammu & Kashmir is already an economically backward state and there is huge number of educated youths without jobs. Government has ambiguous stand with regarding to the Pakistan refugees and it seems that the government is shying away from expressing their stand,” Akbar added.
“If Mufti Sayed would have been sincere then he should have demanded to the Indian government that they should adjust these refugees in any other state like UP, Haryana, Rajasthan or Gujarat and don’t complicate the disputed nature of the state,” he said.
While reacting to the statement of Mufti for creation of separate township for the Kashmiri Pandits, theHurriyat (G) spokesman said, “Kashmiri Pandits are our brothers and an important part of our society and no Kashmiri is against their return but Hurriyat is totally not in favour of creating separate townships for them. Hurriyat is of the view that this is a wicked attempt of dividing Kashmir on religious lines and this plan will become a reason of harming our century’s old traditional brotherhood.” He claimed that the separate cities for Pandits is a plan of the RSS and the communal forces want to implement their policies under its grab. In the name of Pandits the Sang Parivar is interested in settling the communal people of the different states of India in the disputed region of Jammu & Kashmir and the separate townships will ease their work.
“This is actually an Israeli pattern of plan according to which the Jews from different parts of the world were settled in separate cities created on the land of Palestine and finally the residents of Palestine were kicked out from their own land and they became strangers in their own land. All these serious issues can’t be neglected and the Hurriyat is closely monitoring all these issues and will formulate a strategy in this regard,” he added.
