Chairman Hurriyat Conference (M) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq Monday said that Article 35A is linked to the fate of Kashmir issue and the people were willing to spill their blood to protect the hereditary state subject law as any change in it amounted to diluting the nature of the Kashmir issue.
Soon after he was set free from his house detention, Mirwaiz convened an emergency meeting of Awami Action Committee (AAC) leaders and workers at MirwaizManzil Srinagar to discuss the prevailing situation in Kashmir.
Addressing the gathering that comprised a large number of youth as well, Mirwaiz said, “Kashmiri people including all segments of the society under one slogan and one mission are ready to spill their blood to protect their state subject law. Any sort of tinkering with it will be resisted tooth and nail.”
Mirwaiz said that New Delhi’s fresh “oppression in the form of NIA raids on homes of resistance leaders and common people” is aimed at “intimidating leadership and people and such moves are destined to fail”.
“These agencies are trying to defame leadership and frame them in fictitious and fake cases to legally put them in the jails but such moves can in no way change the reality of the history of dispute or situation on ground,” Mirwaiz said. “Such moves can’t also break the commitment of the people of Kashmir who have all been in some form or the other struggling for resolution of the Kashmir issue.”
Mirwaiz expressed his concern over the current situation when India and Pakistan are engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball conflict and the region is in great danger of destruction.
“We have repeatedly stated that war is no solution to the problems between India and Pakistan especially for the resolution of Kashmir dispute and its precarious offshoots,” he said, and thanked the role of international community that includes United States, United Kingdom, Turkey in helping in de-escalating tensions between the two nuclear powers and advocating dialogue for the resolution of issues including Kashmir.
Mirwaiz said Kashmir issue will have to be eventually resolved by peaceful means. “While the region is facing threat of further escalation, in the meantime efforts and ploys are being employed by New Delhi to undermine the dispute and muzzle all voices by extremely coercive measures,” he said.
“Change in the nature of Kashmir issue would face stiff resistance from every Kashmiri as in this regard people of Kashmir and the leadership are on the same page.”
Mirwaiz said that Kashmir issue was purely a political and human issue that needs to be resolved by means of a sustained dialogue and not by any war or skirmishes.
“It has again become evident that non-resolution of Kashmir issue is the major threat to peace in the entire sub-continent and South Asia,” he said.
Mirwaiz termed the ban on Kashmir’s socio-religious organisationJamaat-e-Islami as highly “undemocratic, unconstitutional and uncalled for.”
“Imposing five-year ban on JeI amounts to direct intervention into religious rights and practices, which deserves highest form of condemnation,” he said.