Srinagar: National Conference Working President and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday expressed disappointment and grief over incidents of schools being burnt in various parts of the Valley and said this was an abhorrent ploy to destroy the future of our children.
In a statement issued here, Omar said the administration is responsible for protecting state’s education infrastructure and should take the sternest possible action against those elements that are found guilty of such incidents of arson. He said the Hurriyat leadership should realize the costs of its reluctance and delay to condemn such behavior unequivocally.
“Our schools hold the key to the self-reliance, dignity and empowerment of our future generation,” Omar said. “An assault on our schools is an assault on our children, their future and their dreams. These are clear, unambiguous attempts to rob our children of education and intellectual growth and there can be no doubt that these elements who attack our schools are the enemies of our children and the enemies of enlightenment.”
The NC Working President said both the Administration and the Hurriyat leadership were responsible for failing to speak up and act in time to prevent such incidents. “You cannot aspire for the moral lecterns of self-righteous leadership without having the courage of your conviction to call a spade a spade. Persecuting your own people cannot be portrayed or disguised as alleged resistance based on a political cause. Robbing our children of their classrooms and of the prospects of academic growth is the greatest act of tyranny and oppression”, Omar said.
“We hope the State Government gets its act together and rises to the occasion to protect our schools. Every new, tragic and saddening news of a gutted school is a verdict on the incompetence and inaction of the State Government. We also hope Hurriyat leaders gather the courage to say the right thing at the right time and don’t allow the street to dictate their agenda and their sense of right and wrong. Schools are centers of learning and enlightenment and an attack on our schools is an attack on our collective dignity and self-respect and will not be tolerated at any cost”, Omar Abdullah added.
Srinagar: JKLF leader M Yasin Malik on Sunday said the ongoing protests are part of the struggle and will continue as long as people approve of it. He said the campaign against the leaders spreading the ongoing strike is aimed at defaming the Tehreekand should be condemned.
Malik who was set free on Saturday evening addressed the news conference Sunday afternoon. He is the second separatist leader who was permitted to interact with the media informally in last four months. Earlier Mirwaiz spoke to the media within 24 hours after he was driven home from the Cheshma Shahi sub jail. Interestingly he conducted the press conference on the road in Abu Guzar where his activist see-up a make-shift stage by fixing the party flag and managing a chair and a table.
“In last one year, almost 100 youth snatched weapons and joined militancy and Delhi accuses Pakistan for this,” Malik said, insisting that, “I was to tell Delhi that they must thank Pakistan. If they would have supported there would be 20,000 militants right now in Kashmir.”
Malik said such a large movement that involves every section of the society and the length and breadth of Kashmir can neither by instigated by some people not by any country. Its size suggests, it has to be indigenous, he insisted, adding this is the outcome of the suppression and torture of youth that Delhi launched in Kashmir in last one year.
Coming heavily on the people for criticizing the continuation of the ongoing strike – already 114 days old, Malik said it should be seen as part of the continuous process rather than being looked at in isolation. “Other similar movements are not very different,” Malik said, “Why Intifada is happening in Palestine every three years and how many similar movements were there in India’s freedom struggle?”
Malik said the protest calendars are not being thrust upon people but are being announced after consultation with them.
Thanking the masses especially students for the continuous Intifada for four months now, the JKLF chief said that it was because of common Kashmiri people that the Kashmir issue is back on the International platform. “It is because of the lives that youth lost and the eyes they lost that Kashmir is now again being talked internationally,” Malik said.
Press Conference Literally On The Road
Malik, who was released on Saturday evening after the killing of Hizb commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani on July 08, said, “The peoples reaction after his death might have been a surprise for India and International community but for a Kashmiri its not.”
“After Indira-Abdullah accord some local youth protested non-violently but they were taken to Red-16 for interrogation and they were forced to take guns,” Malik said. “There was a student’s party – Islamic Students League and all the militants outfits had their commanders from the League background.”
Sharply reacting over the recent remarks of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti that she is the biggest ‘human right’s activist’ and people who had took guns in 1989 were ‘illiterates’, Malik said, “All militant groups in Kashmir were started by the students of Islamic Students League. I want to ask her, was Ishfaq Majeed an illiterate, was Dr Guru an illiterate, was Najeeb Khateeb an illiterate, was Salauh-u-din an Illiterate?”
Malik said the continuous ransacking of private properties by government forces under ongoing Operation Calm Down is aimed at misleading people that things are normal in Kashmir. He said there are 10,000 people in detention.
“She has crossed all limits,” Malik said while referring to Ms Mufti’s statement: “If these kids had gone to buy milk, toffees at the army camps.”
Malik reacted to the “propaganda” launched by Delhi media over the children of separatist leaders. “I haven’t seen my daughter from last two years, ask me how it feels and they say that my daughter is safer with her mother,” Malik said. “Where was their conscience when my wife and daughter were thrown out a hotel at 10 PM in Delhi?” Malik said Delhi wants to defame movement by defaming its captains, its leaders – Geelani, Mirwaiz, Asiya Andrabi and me.
For the burning of schools, Malik pointed fingers towards PDP. “When they could burn down temples in Islamabad and Bijbehara to topple down Gul Shah’s government in 1984 then why can’t they burn down schools now?” he asked. He also supported students by saying that separatists haven’t said if students have to appear in exams or not but it is their decision and separatist will support them. He blamed Ms Mufti and her Education Minister Naeem Akhter for the school blazes.
Malik said the government has pushed itself into confrontation with the students. In 1984, he said, when he was in PUC in SP School, they visited the Deputy Commissioner. “WE told him we were not ready for examinations and it took the government 24 hours to go for March session,” Maik said, “Why is this being made a big issue now.”
Thanking the people for Pir-Panchal and Kargil and Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and different traders unions, Malik said it has left Indian columnists dumb who used to write Pir Panchal and Kargil doesn’t support Kashmir cause.
Malik blamed Prime Minister Modi for communal politics in Pir Panchal. “You are the only country that is publicly saying it will follow Isreal,” Malik said, insisting, “I want to tell you that history is witness that by imposing extreme form of cruelty, no nation has extinguished. But I challenge you to impose your extreme form and check this Azadi sentiment won’t die in Kashmir.”
Malik said the unity of separatists continues. “Whether one meets somebody or all, it does not matter,” he said. “I swear that this Joint resistance group will take the mission forward.”
Srinagar: A government school building was set on fire Sunday afternoon in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district by unidentified persons sending alarm bells across the valley again.
Reports said that Govt Higher Secondary School, Kabamarg building was damaged in a mysterious fire.
Locals immediately called fire extinguishers that brought the fire under control but not before it damaged major portion of the building, local sources said.
Srinagar: Two Kashmiri cricketers, working in Dubai have made it to the final selection trials of Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchisee side Peshawar Zalmi, reported a sports website.
According to the report published on Pro-Sports, Farooq Ahmed of Nishat and Hilal Maqbool of Tarzoo Sopore participated in the talent hunt drive by Peshawar Zalmi in Dubai. In the trials around 300 cricketers participated.
“During the ongoing talent hunt drive by Peshawar Zalmi two of our Kashmiri brothers made it into the final trials. The final trial was held at ICC Academy Dubai on October 20. Peshawar Zalmi owner Javid Afridi was present and the trial was held under Cricketer Shahid Afridi and Peshawar Zalmi Head Coach Muhammad Akram,” said Saifaan Ahmed.
“We are waiting for the final results to be declared soon. Pakistan is extending its support to Kashmiri’s overseas by providing them opportunities and platform to showcase their talent,” he added.
Srinagar: A group of parents today protested outside the Governor’s house in Srinagar against separatist Syed Ali Geelani for giving continuous shutdown calls. They said the education of their children was at stake as they had not attended classes for the last 112 days of unrest.“When the children of separatist leaders appear in exams and make their career safe, why is the future of our children being jeopardised?” asked one of the protesting parents.“We want our children to go to school and appeal to Geelani to call off the strike,” they said. — TNS
‘Let’s rise above party politics to mitigate sufferings of people’
Arnia:Making a passionate appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Zero Line in Arnia Sector to celebrate this Diwali with the abandoned border dwellers along International Border and LoC in Jammu and Kashmir, Provincial President National Conference and MLA Devender Singh Rana and local MLA Dr Kamal Arora said on Saturday evening the situation is explosive in the wake of continuous shelling and “we all should rise above political affiliations and seek solution to problems”.
“Diwali falls on Amawasya and let the Prime Minister light a lamp to end the darkness of borders, the silence of which is intermittently interrupted by mortal shells and heavy artillery, sending chill among the residents, who are running helter-skelter with women, old, ailing and children for safety”, Rana said while expressing grave concern over the traumatic conditions in which the hapless people were living on LoC and IB.
The Provincial President along with Dr Kamal Arora and State Vice Presidents Rattan Lal Gupta and Th Kashmira Singh spent the day in conuctive extensive visit of the shelling hit villages and hoped that the Prime Minister will see for himself how the State BJP leaders and political executives of the government have virtually abandoned the residents, who are struggling to survive the onslaught. He said the visit will certainly provide an opportunity to Mr Modi to feel the pulse of the people who are anguished over forgetting the promises made by BJP stalwarts from top in the high command down in the state leadership during 2014 parliamentary and assembly elections with regard to provision of five marla plots and reservation for their wards in professional courses and government jobs.
“We are sure the Prime Minister will feel the trauma and agony of the suffering people, whose woes have been added by the bunch of BJP exploiters here”, he said, hoping that Modi will set an example by being with the residents in distress and feel their pain.
He assailed the BJP’s total indifference towards residents of the forward areas at this crucial hour of border crisis and asked where the political executives of Jammu and Kashmir have vanished.
“At a time they should have been with the suffering people, the BJP ministers and leaders, who were making beeline during elections, were not visible anywhere”, Mr Rana said adding that the promises of five marla plots have proved just a hoax like various other commitments they made to people of the Jammu region. “The callousness of the administration towards residents is a classic example of the duplicity and deception of the BJP, which has mastered in exploitation”, he said and cautioned the PDP-BJP coalition to mitigate the miseries of huge chunk of border population spreading over three dozen villages.
Rana expressed solidarity with the border dwellers, who were showing exemplary courage in meeting the challenges unfolded by continuous shelling and prayed for early recovery of the injured. He also conveyed his condolences to bereaved families of the two civilians, who fell causality to the shelling.
The Provincial President said the border skirmishes were no solution to problems and hoped that positive steps would be taken to de-esclate the tension and hostility that is proving hazardous for the villagers along the International Border and Line of Control. “We sincerely hope that the atmosphere of jingoism will be a temporary phase and the two countries would engage themselves in meaningful dialogue”, he said and added that the victims of hostilities have always been the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Rana also expressed anguish over injuries suffered by the personnel of armed forces and paid tributes to martyrs who lost their lives in recent days.
Rana and other senior party leaders called for adequate arrangements, health care and other facilities at the make shift camps for border residents, who were forced to leave their homes and hearths due to intermittent shelling. “The facilities are needed to be made on war-footing basis due to cold nights”, he said and hoped that the administration will not shirk from its responsibilities like it has been doing for the past two and half years.
The NC leaders met the dislocated people at various places and assured that the party shared their agonies and miseries. (KNS)
“We have never interfered internal affairs of any country”
Srinagar: LeT chief Mehmood Shah has said that the Syrian ambassador’s statement is tantamount to denying the truth that the Kashmir issue is an internal problem of India. The world has recognized the disputed Kashmir issue.
In an emailed statement issued to KNS, LeT chief said under the UN rules Kashmiris have right to fight for freedom against occupying forces. We do not draw in the internal affairs of any country. India is bound decades of oppression heinous reign in Kashmir .Our struggle against the occupying forces to understand the fact of Kashmir Syrian ambassador should go to Kashmir and feel pain of Kashmiri Muslims who are suffering Indian forces`s atrocities since decades. LeT Jehadi group in Kashmir, we are fighting against barbaric forces according to Islamic law. Daeish is production of America, India and Israel, We have no connection with them. The international community and OIC has declared Kashmir issue is dangerous for regional peace, It remains to be resolved, That the only solution is jihad. Seven decades of negotiations More than half a million Kashmiris were martyred but the problem could not be solved. Kashmiris have pickup the guns against oppression the results will come soon for world. (KNS)
Srinagar:To release all political leaders and revoke Public Safety Act against those not involved in serious cases is under active consideration of the government, sources told KNS.
After the release of Hurriyat (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Muhammad Yasin Malik, authorities are going to release Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) chief Shabir Ahmad Shah, sources told KNS.
They added that government has decided to release political leaders as and when the situation improves.
“With the improvement of situation every day, the process to release political leaders has begun. Public Safety Act (PSA) on some students would be also revoked,” sources told KNS.
They added that government is mulling to create a conducive atmosphere in which every stakeholder would have no hesitation to be the part of dialogue process.
“Authorities are taking the assessment of situation on daily basis. More positive development would occur as and when normalcy returns in Kashmir,” they informed. (KNS)
