Srinagar, Nov 15: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Monday criticized the state government for its handling of the situation during the past five months of unrest in the valley.
“The renewed turmoil that engulfed the state this year is not behind us. It continues to rage among the parents, families and the kith and kin of those who fell to the atrocities of trigger-happy government forces,” PDP patron and former Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed said in a statement here.
Flaying the government for not reaching out to the families of the victims of the recent unrest, Sayeed said civil liberties have been curbed to an extent that Kashmir seems “off the map” of democracy.
“It seems the government is determined to only increase the scale of its draconian methods and atrocities,” he said.
The most worrisome part of the scenario is the way the government has gone after the youth of Kashmir. What it has failed to do is to inspire hope among our younger generation, the statement quoted Sayeed as saying.
“Horror stories of places like Pattan, Palhalan and in fact entire rural Kashmir where the behaviour of police and security forces indicates a total reversal of normalisation process that the state had witnessed before the present government. My colleague Moulvi Iftikhar Hussein Ansari who represents the area in the Assembly and who visited the area has brought back impressions of an enemy territory,” Sayeed said.
Greeting people on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha, he said, “I extend my full solidarity with them and those who are seeking justice for the excesses committed on them. The PDP will not let them be alone in their grim struggle.”
“Thousands of youth have been picked up even without acknowledging their arrest. More have been brought on the police hit list with the sole aim of creating an atmosphere of terror and silence of the grave yard. After defaming the new generation and in fact entire Kashmiri people as stone pelters the government is seeking sadistic pleasure through physical and psychological torture,” he said.
“Nocturnal raids are back and so are the civilian gunmen that have become an icon of National Conference in power. Police has been making strange and obviously frightening inquiries from families in the rural areas like: why do you need a kitchen of this size or more than one toilet in the house if you are a small family,” Mufti said.
The PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has also extended warm greetings to the people of the state. She has prayed for peace and prosperity of the people and expressed solidarity with ‘the victims of government violence.’

Lastupdate on : Mon, 15 Nov 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 15 Nov 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:00:00 IST