Srinagar, June 16: Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani has called upon the youth to demonstrate utmost discipline and observe shutdown only when inevitably needed and “called for by the leadership.”  
“Our struggle is not limited to days and months. I wish we may achieve freedom tomorrow only but we have to be mentally prepared for a long struggle. It is not possible for us to observe strikes daily. It should be observed only when it is inevitably needed and the leadership calls for it,” said Geelani, while he was speaking at a condolence meeting at the residence of Shaheed Tufail Ahmad Mattoo at Saidakadal here.
“Geelani made it to Shaheed Tufail’s residence soon after he was discharged from SKIMS, Soura, to express solidarity with the family. While in SKIMS he had several times enquired about the health of injured youth Muhammad Rafiq Bangroo,” said a spokesman of the Hurriyat in a statement Wednesday.
 Geelani said, “Students are being killed one by one for a long time now. It is in fact deliberately done to target our future generations.”
 Without naming Ali Muhammad Sagar, Geelani, according to Hurriyat statement, said, “Instead of owning responsibility of the killings the state rulers are intimidating us against mourning these. They are warning of serious consequences should we mourn these killings. Soon after this statement by the state rulers, the police started its drive of arresting the youth in every locality. They are beating our youth in police stations,” the statement quoted Geelani as saying.
 Geelani warned of serious consequences if “reckless arrests of youth were not stopped immediately.”
 Reiterating his demand for demilitarization, Geelani said the anarchy and bloodshed in Kashmir was the result of the presence of troops here. “Peace will be a far fetched dream in Jammu Kashmir until the troops leave Kashmir,” he said.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST