Srinagar, Dec 1: Chairman of Hurriyat Conference (M), Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, on Wednesday said the government was desperate to portray the peaceful struggle of Kashmiris as “violent and a militant struggle” to malign the movement. The separatist leader accused New Delhi of being hand in glove with the “fanatic elements” involved in assaulting him and expressed disappointment over the silence of Indian political parties on these acts.
Addressing a news conference at Hurriyat headquarters here after arriving from New Delhi, Mirwaiz, flanked by Bilal Gani Lone, while terming the Qamarwari killings as ‘fake encounter,’ said, “Frustrated by the peaceful struggle, government is trying to link the movement with the other forces like Maoists and Al-Qaeda to tarnish its indigenous character.”
“It is very clear that after 2008, the government wants to present Kashmir issue as militancy issue because it suits their interests. They are legitimizing killings, firings by these statements. First the chief minister said that there are links between Maoists and Kashmiris,” he said while replying to a query on statement of police that stone pelters and militants are related.
Mirwaiz, who participated in seminars in Kolkata, New Delhi and met diplomats during past 10 days, said that elements involved in assaulting him were patronized by the Government of India.
“They cannot escape from their responsibility and the response of police deployed at venues was also late,” he said.
Mirwaiz said, “New Delhi and its agencies are hell bent on projecting the Kashmir issue negatively before its masses, so no one among them raises question over harsh measures on Kashmir.”
“These forces want to show negative picture of Kashmir and tell their masses everything happening here is extremism, terrorism and is being done by Pakistan,” he said.
Expressing disappointment over the ‘silence’ of the Indian political parties over attacks on him, Mirwaiz said that those talking about democratic values are mum over the cowardly attacks by the fanatic elements.
“On one hand government is making claims of appointing interlocutors for talks with us, while on other hand we are stopped from talking to people of India,” he said.
The separatist leader said that peaceful agitation of past five months has rattled these forces as sections of media have begun to show the real picture of Kashmir.
“Due to sacrifices of Kashmiris, the wrong impression about Kashmir has started diminishing, but these elements want to muzzle our voice to justify force in Kashmir, but they should know that they cannot stifle our voice in or outside the state,” he said. Flaying the attackers, Mirwaiz said that some political parties were befooling their own people by doing petty politics on Kashmir issue.
“Our agenda is not communal and it is not Hindu India versus Muslim Kashmir. Our agenda is purely political and we stand for political settlement of the Kashmir issue. The Kashmiri Pandits are part and parcel of our society and some elements want to pit the people against each other to show that Kashmiris are divided. This is a conspiracy to fragmentize society to show to the world that only few people want Azadi. I appeal Kashmiris not to fall in the trap of these communal elements,” he said.
The separatist leader maintained that civil society and political parties of India have vital role in the resolution of Kashmir issue.
“The resolution of Kashmir issue is in the interest of India and Indian people will be most beneficial by the solution of the issue,” he said.
About the efforts of Hurriyat for reaching out to Indian citizens, Mirwaiz said Hurriyat made this conscious decision to aware the people of India about the reality of Kashmir issue.
Mirwaiz said that Hurriyat is custodian of sacrifices and would represent sentiment of Kashmiris everywhere.
“We would continue our diplomatic and political efforts for the resolution of Kashmir and wouldn’t be cowed down by these attacks,” he said while announcing that he would participate in conferences at Hyderabad and Lucknow in next few weeks.
Appreciating the efforts of civil society groups for organizing seminars on Kashmir issue, Mirwaiz said that there are people in India who want to apprise people about the real nature of Kashmir issue.
“People of India want us to come for discussion on Kashmir issue and everybody, whom we met, talked about resolution of Kashmir issue. Though the people of India are unaware about Kashmir issue, but some sections are well versed with the real nature of the dispute,” he said.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Bilal Gani Lone were brought in a cavalcade from Airport to Hurriyat headquarters.
On way, supporters raised slogans in their favour and against rightwing organizations involved in assaulting them.
Later a meeting of the amalgam was held under the chairmanship of Mirwaiz at Hurriyat headquarters.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 1 Dec 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 1 Dec 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 2 Dec 2010 00:00:00 IST