Srinagar, May 9: Day after Chairman of Hurriyat Conference (G) Syed Ali Shah Geelani announced that his conglomerate would launch a campaign against “arrest spree” in the Valley and to seek the release of Kashmiri detainees, the major opposition party in the state People Democratic Party joined the chorus.               
 “The government by continuing to hold teenagers and the aged in detention is actually discrediting not just itself but the entire process of resolution and reconciliation that was supposed to have been initiated in the wake of last year’s atrocities on defenceless and peaceful citizens,” the PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said in a statement on Monday. 
 Strongly criticizing the government policy to extend its arrest and detain drive, Mehbooba said he party would resist attempts at “enforcing silence of the graveyard” in the state.
 “The state government is trying to exist only through strong arm tactics against its people while being unable to perform on governance front. Arrests and continued detentions are the only gift from the coalition government to a people still nursing the wounds of innocent deaths, injuries, disabilities and destitution caused during the previous two years,” she added.
 “It is a mockery of justice and democracy that aged people like Ashraf Sehrai and Ghulam Nabi Sumjhi (Hurriyat (G) leaders) continue to be behind bars along with others while the government is blowing the trumpet of imaginary achievements which in any case have failed to divert focus from its monumental failures on every front,” she added.
  “Contrary to the claims made from time to time a large number of people continue to languish in detention while the future of hundreds of youth has been imperiled by filing FIRs against them. A large number of students have lost their precious academic pursuit trying to evade arrest, “she added.
 Referring to the latest slapping of PSA against Qazi Yasir, a religious leader of south Kashmir Mehbooba said it made no sense to deny peaceful citizens and religious leaders their liberty merely on suspicion. “It is immensely dangerous to link such highhanded conduct with Panchayat elections or the sensitive issue of Amarnath Yatra,” she said and added the peaceful conduct of Yatra over the years, increasing number of pilgrims and people’s support to it is enough to disprove government contention.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 May 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
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