KL Report
SRINAGAR
Stating that the prevailing peace in valley is superficial in nature, renowned Human Rights and Civil Liberties activist, Gautam Navlakha Thursday cautioned the state and central governments against ‘explosion of a lava building up in Kashmir’.
“Apparently everything seems normal as traffic is plying and schools are open but it is silence not peace. The lava is building up as people’s emotions and aspirations are being suppressed with force. This lava can explode any time”, Navlakha said while talking to KNS.
He said the reason for the ongoing strife in valley is the Kashmir dispute which needs to be resolved as per people’s wishes for real peace to prevail. “Aap logoon ke diloon se khof ke zariye azadi ka sapna nahin nikal sakte (You cannot make people surrender their aspiration for freedom through intimidation and suppression)”, he said.
Navlakha said the hanging of parliament attack convict Muhammad Afzal Guru has further alienated the people of Kashmir. “Afzal’s hanging has sent a wrong message across to the people of Kashmir. They (people) have lost all hope in the state and the government. They no longer expect good things from it”, he added. “How long can you buy time through interlocutors and parliamentary delegations? People are losing patience and hope”. The HR activisit who was also accompanied by another activist Sahba Hussin and Ahsan Untoo visited Lolab in Kupwara district on Wednesday and returned to Srinagar via Kupwara today.
Calling J&K a Police state, the noted activist and author said the proposed Police bill was aimed at legitimizing the police state. He said the state government had no authority or powers to act on its own. “There are only two powerful institutions – police and army. What authority does the government have when the police has even taken over counselling of youth and is interfering in working of educational institutions? One fails to understand what role the civil administration has been left with when police transgresses its limits”, he said.
Navlakha castigated the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for what he called contradictory statements on the issue of unmarked graves. “First he said that parents should come forward and DNA profiling of those buried in the grave will be done. Then he contradicted himself saying the state has no infrastructure to do it (DNA testing). Once again he later said there are foreigners in the graves. He contradicts his own statements”, he said adding “FIRs have been lodged in the cases of those buried in the grave but hundreds of them have been labelled as foreigners. Now the parents have to fight against establishment. How would prove that their children and kin are buried in those graves”.
Expressing his views over arrest of Liyaqat Ali Shah, Navlakha said the arrest of Shah by Delhi police could scuttle the whole process of surrender and rehabilitation policy.
Supporting Navlakha’s views on unbridled power and impunity of police and forces, human rights activist and Chairman International Forum for Justice Ahsan Untoo, cited the example of a Kupwara man who was allegedly beaten up by police and hi eye damaged. “House of Gh Nabi Bhat S/o Late Gh Mohiuddin R/o Shlagun Lalpora Kupwara aged 70 plus was ransacked and window panes broken after a stone pelting incident in the vicinity. He was mercilessly beaten up by police and his left eye go damaged. Despite his three sons working in Police, CRPF and Army, they have failed to get a FIR registered since March 8, 2013. What would be the fate of other people”, said Untoo and added that a complaint in the case has been filed in the State Human Rights Commission against three police officers.
