Srinagar, June 8: Commenting on the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s speech at SKICC here on Monday, the Hurriyat Conference (G) Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Tuesday said there was nothing new in it.
 “Dr Manmohan Singh, who is pursuing the same policy as that of his predecessors on Kashmir issue, parroted the Indian rulers’ traditional words in his speech,” said Geelani, according to a Hurriyat statement.
 Geelani said the violence and terrorism about which Dr Singh talked about in his speech had nothing to do with Kashmiris. “But the fact remains that whatever the violence and terrorism takes place in Kashmir is done by the armed forces alone. Dr Singh only gave a tangential reference to it,” he said.
 Geelani said Dr Singh referred to human rights abuses in such a way as if these were the incidents of minor type of violations. “The armed forces are perpetrating human rights abuses in planned manner. They kill innocent civilians in fake encounters and bury them in nameless graves,” he said, adding that Dr Singh made the mention of such ‘terror’ acts in such a way as if the people were getting killed accidentally in war operations.
 “In principle we are not against the talks but we look upon holding of talks for photo sessions with Indian rulers as mockery with martyrs’ blood,” Geelani said.
 Gelani thanked the people for observing exemplary shutdown on Dr Singh’s visit to Valley on Monday. “The atmosphere remained choked during Dr Singh’s stay in Srinagar. Not only people’s movement was curbed but the mobile services were also suspended. Dr Singh himself must have felt that he was not staying in any part of India but had come to some other place. He could only see the faces of three-four hundred people who are on his pay rolls,” he said.       
 Hurriyat Conference (M) Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said New Delhi must get serious “with regard to the resolution of the 66-year-old Kashmir dispute.”
 “Instead of giving hints about Kashmir issue and talking about its resolution in the ambiguous language, it is high time Government of India understands the sensitivity of the 66-year-old-dispute and makes serious efforts to resolve it, once and for all,” Mirwaiz said, responding to the Prime Minister’s statement.
 Mirwaiz asserted that the country’s leadership must bring about a “significant change in its attitude” which will facilitate movement forward in the resolution of Kashmir issue.
 Reacting to Manmohan’s statement on dialogue, Mirwaiz said the Hurriyat Conference (M) has always been in favour of a meaningful and result-oriented dialogue between India, Pakistan and Kashmir.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 8 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 8 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 9 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST