RIYAZ UL KHALIQ
SRINAGAR
Awami Itehad Party President and MLA Langate Er Rashid Tuesday claimed that army and police paid money to former government backed Ikhwanis to ‘sabotage the indigenous movement of Kashmiris’ and said that his party would file a suit against an army Colonel and a JKP Superintendent in coming days in State Human Rights Commission.
In press conference at a local hotel here, Rasheed elaborated his claim that in 2010, in his Langate Constituency, an army Colonel and a JKP SP, in a meet with former renegades (Ikhwanis) and some drivers gave them Rs 2 Lakh to sabotage the uprising.
“As in 2010 people marched to different places responding to Hurriyat calls, they asked these renegades to march to my native village in same way and offer Friday congregational prayers there, and defamed me while sloganeering against me as I am talking in favour of Kashmiris,” Er Rashid claimed. “But, somehow I came to know about it and stopped that dirty design.”
Pertinently, a confidential army board meetings’ minutes disclosed by an Indian national paper said that ex-Indian army chief utilized money through a secret unit of army in Kashmir in 2010 to ‘engineer’ a change in Omar government. It said that JK agriculture minister GH Hassan Mir was paid Rs 1.19 crores to help that change which the accused minister refutes.
It further said that an NGO was engaged by army to scuttle incumbent Indian army chief’s promotion to the post. Apparently, this has put the whole India into a political ‘instability’.
Er Rashid said that the 2010 uprising in Kashmir was indigenous and it showed peoples’ aspirations.
He claimed that ‘dirty designs of army and police’ prove the newspaper’s claims right that money was sent to Kashmir.
“I sent my people to Syed Ali Geelani, Masrat Alam and Asiya Indrabi in Hurriyat camp,” Er Rashid said, adding, “I also met Omar Abdullah, M Y Tarigami, IGP Sahai and IB director in Kashmir.”
He said that the government took no steps to bring such people before public.
He said that the revelations are only to make families of martyred youth mentally disturbed and show world that Kashmiris were being paid for stones.
“It is only to defame our movement,” he claimed.
Pertinently, Asiya Indrabi in 2010 claimed that she had the list of drivers who plied their public vehicles to ‘sabotage the peoples’ movement’.
Er Rashid lashed out at V K Singh for his comment that every politician in Kashmir is on pay rolls of army. “I want to ask India who authorized General V K Singh to abuse Kashmiris, Kashmiris are not beggars,” he said and asked pro-Indian politicians of J&K to come out of their sleep and protest the statement if they are real representatives of Kashmir. He, in a sarcastic tone alleged that MLAs of J&K are representing New Delhi in Kashmir not people of J&K.
Er Rashid asked Omar Abdulla to hold an inquiry into the revelations, ‘throw GH Hassan Mir out’ of his cabinet and file an FIR against him. Though, he said that GH Hassan Mir is a good person and he should have resigned on moral grounds.
He said that if the claims of former army chief are true then the pro-Indian politicians of state have been used first and now their masks are being removed by army itself. He asked army to come clear on the issue.
He also suggested legislative members of J&K assembly to publicise their properties and he would be the first person to do so.
Responding to question, he said that India would use every method to keep Kashmir till it is here, “if money was used for Kashmir Premier League (Cricket tournament) by army, it is not a big deal. Like British, India will continue to do so.” He further said that if youth who participated in the KPL would have come to know about the reality behind the tournament, they would have “shown” them the way.
