SRINAGAR: Hurriyat Conference (M) has expressed amazement over the statement by LG Manoj Sinha that Mirwaiz is not under house arrest and the personnel stationed outside his house are for his safety. It termed the statement as “blatant misrepresentation of facts”.
“Mirwaiz for the last three years has forcibly not been allowed to come out of his house despite repeated appeals and implorations from all sections of people to the authorities, including religious ulemas across the state. Newspaper and electronic media reports bear witness to it,” Hurriyat (M) statement said. “Being the Mirwaiz he is even stopped from going to Jamia Masjid on Fridays to deliver religious sermons from its pulpit which is the centuries old tradition in J&K, or to visit other religious places on important religious occasions.”
The statement said that except close relatives no one is allowed to enter the house.
“Such blatant misrepresentation of facts” and denial of his incarceration is unbelievable,” the statement added.
But the Hurriyat was not alone in reacting to the statement. Omar Abdullah and Sajad Lone took to Twitter and respond after LG Sinha’s statement came.
“The same way my colleagues were locked in their homes “for their own safety” for months on 4th Aug 2019 & the same way we get trucks parked outside our gates every once in a while because “inputs” suggest an attack on Gupkar road is imminent,” Omar Abdullah wrote on Twitter.
“I think LG sahib needs to verify facts,” Sajad Lone wrote on Twitter. “His statements don’t reflect reality. May I humbly state that the tradition of locking up leaders and then denying is an old worn out tradition. It has been happening for the last 3 decades.”
The Grand Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir and the senior leader of Muttahida Majlis-e-Ulema Mufti Nasir-ul-Islam has also demanded Mirwaiz’s immediate release.
