Srinagar, Jan 21: Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik Friday said that Bharitya Janta Party’s plan to hoist a flag in Lal Chowk is aimed at breaking the resolve of Kashmiri people who are seeking freedom from India.
“The BJP thinks that by hoisting flags they would defeat the aspirations of the people of Kashmir,” Malik said, addressing a rally at Gaw Kadal here on the anniversary of Gaw Kadal Massacre of 1992. “They (the BJP leaders) live in wonderland. They should know that Kashmiris have always fought back when challenged. They fought when BJP planned flag hoisting in 1992. They could not be defeated by 10 lakh armed personnel deployed in the Valley since 1989.”
 Reacting sharply to the BJP leader LK Advani’s comments that by flag hoisting in Lal Chowk they would take forward the mission of party ideologue Shama Prasad Mukherjee and it would help in fully integrating Kashmir with India, Malik urged the Kashmiri people to march peacefully towards Lal Chowk on January 26 to give befitting reply to the right wing party.
 “We will decide there whose flag would be hoisted at the Clock Tower. Theirs or ours,” Malik said. “I also appeal the youth to not resort to violence that day. It should be a peaceful movement. We would defeat India and BJP.”
 Malik said: “Where was Advani when he was the Home Minister and BJP in power. Why he did not undertake such a programme then. Instead, they talked to Hurriyats, militants and Pakistan. They accepted that Kashmir was a prime issue to be solved. Their prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee several times said that it would be his dream to solve this issue and bring peace in South Asia,” he added.
 He said due to non-violent struggle, the Kashmir issue apart from being internationalized has also found takers in the Indian civil society.
 “There is a section of people in India who are pressurizing government to solve this long -standing issue,” he said.
 He also thanked the Hurriyat Conference (M) and its constituents for supporting his Lal Chowk march to counter the BJP’s flag hoisting programme.
 Earlier Malik undertook a march along with his supporters from Maisuma to Gaw Kadal to pay tributes to the martyrs of the massacre which claimed life of 54 persons when CRPF men allegedly fired upon peaceful protesters on Jan 21, 1990.
 Paying tributes to the victims, he said it was the first massacre “after the JKLF brought revolution in Kashmir.”
 “54 people who were peacefully marching were gunned down on the orders of then Governor Jagmohan,” Malik said. “Jagmohan did not end there. In the following days, several massacres like that of Hawal, Sopore, Handwara and Bhijbehara were carried out”.
 He said the mission of the lakhs of martyrs in Kashmir would be taken to its logical conclusion.
 “We will keep the torch of freedom inflamed till we achieve it,” Malik said.
 During the rally the JKLF activists also raised slogans against BJP and in favour of freedom.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 21 Jan 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 21 Jan 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 22 Jan 2011 00:00:00 IST