Srinagar, July 21: Accusing a political party of making money from the arrests of innocent youth, Peoples Democratic Party has stated that dignity, liberty and security of the people of the state had never been compromised as badly as at present.
Expressing these views at a stock taking meeting here, senior leaders of the party felt caging an entire population with a view to beating them into submission had never worked and Kashmir could not be an exception to this universal rule.
The meeting held today was presided over by party patron Mufti Muhammad Sayeed. Besides the party president Mehbooba Mufti, senior leaders including former deputy chief minister Muzaffar Hussein Baig, general secretary Muhammad Dillawar Mir, Abdul Aziz Zargar and Tariq Hameed Karra participated in deliberations.
The meeting reviewed the situation caused by the ‘totally inept and insensitive handling’ of matters by the government. The atrocities on common man were continuing unabated with no regard for either the civil liberties or life of people, the party felt and expressed strong disapproval of the indiscriminate use of force instead of reaching out to the harassed and besieged population.
The party deplored the massive arrests of innocent young people many of whom had been booked under the draconian PSA. “The government has converted a tragic situation into a lucrative business” the party felt in view of reports that many innocent boys were arrested only to extract ransom from their families. “It seems touts belonging to a particular political party are out to make some quick money as they are allegedly providing lists of ‘suspects’ to the police and then sharing the money extorted in return for their release,” the party said.
Such repression, the party believes, is not only a grave injustice to the people but also presents a dark portent for the future as the youth are being deliberately pushed to wall.
The meeting felt that the current situation could not be defused by diversionary tactics on the vastly shrunk political chessboard of the ruling party which is becoming more and more irrelevant everyday. Neither could it be trampled under the jackboot as pointed out even by one and all. As it is obvious that the government that itself is now operating from a bunker is unable to take any positive action, the least that the people expect is for it to refrain from allowing political cadres to commercialize people’s miseries by implicating them in false cases, the party stated.
“The government should have thought of something better than enacting a musical chairs farce among officials who are not ready now even to take up responsible positions”, the party noted with deep concern at the ever deteriorating situation.
In the context of the reported measures against the mobile operators the party felt it was a completely avoidable step. “Not only would it contribute further to the feeling of siege among the people but it would also hit at thousands of people connected with its operation depriving them of their source of income. In the already dark economic and employment scenario such sinister moves smack of a deliberate design to inflict another atrocity on the people.”

Lastupdate on : Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST