SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir assembly election results are a clear message against the Centre’s “unilateral decision” to abrogate Article 370 in 2019, Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said here on Friday.
Addressing the Friday congregation at Jamia Masjid here, Mirwaiz said people sent a “unanimous and clear message” in the recently concluded elections that in every manner available to them, “they will resist attempts to subjugate and disempower them”.
“This time, through a consolidated ballot, they registered their strong disapproval of the drastic unilateral changes made in August 2019. Since then they have been systematically disempowered, deprived and stifled our voices,” he added.
Mirwaiz said he hoped that the new government would respect the message of the voters and fulfil the promise they made “to restore the legal safeguards and the rights snatched from us in 2019”.
He said the incoming government should help secure the release of all political prisoners and youth languishing in jails. It should also “push for the withdrawal of the draconian laws, including UAPA [Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967] and PSA (Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978) under which they themselves were incarcerated in 2019”, he added.
