“The nation of Kashmir has not, cannot and will never bowbefore this state-sponsored terror and watch all this mutely. The nation ofKashmir will observe a complete and comprehensive shutdown against thesecolonial acts on Wednesday and Thursday,” the JRL said in a statement.
The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising Syed AliGeelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik has called for a shutdownon February 27 and 28 in protest against the National Investigation Agencyraids, widespread arrests and the “attempts to tinker” with Article 35A.
“The nation of Kashmir has not, cannot and will never bowbefore this state-sponsored terror and watch all this mutely. The nation ofKashmir will observe a complete and comprehensive shutdown against thesecolonial acts on Wednesday and Thursday,” the JRL said in a statement.
Strongly condemning the “‘dictatorial crackdown by NewDelhi” against the people of Jammu and Kashmir, the statement said:”Pertinently, the sleuths of NIA accompanied by Kashmir police and CRPF startedraiding the residences of Mirwaiz Muhammad Umar Farooq, incarcerated MuhammadYasin Malik, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, incarcerated Syed Shabir Ahmad Shah,incarcerated Masarat Aalam Bhat, Syed Naseem Geelani son of Syed Ali Geelani,Zaffar Akbar Bhat and others. NIA accompanied by local police officials evendid not bother to push the door bells and straightaway barged into rooms ofleaders and started vandalising their houses and intimidating their families.This act of clear vengeance in many cases continued from early morning tilllate in the day and ended after the complete devastation of the houses andfamilies under siege”.
“Barging into privacy of homes without a knock, vandalisinghouses in the name of search and intimidating families can only be termed asworst form of hounding by NIA and the police who have today descended to lowestof ethics and morality in Kashmir,” the statement read.
It added: “Prior to these NIA raids which are in fact act ofbullying, whole Kashmir has been turned into a battlefield where old and young,political or non-political are being raided, arrested, put into jails andsuppressed by police, army and other forces. Not only leaders and activists ofpolitical organisations are being bundled but leaders and Ulema belonging toreligious, social and other walks of life are also being arrested and till datethousands have been put in jails in a bid to suppress the voices of Kashmiris.”
“On the one hand, this bullying is going on without a breakand on the other the threatening gestures of Indian leadership and theirdeceitful stances and debates on noisy Indian TV channels suggesting to do awaywith the hereditary state subject law under the garb of 35A which is scheduledto be heard in Supreme Court either on February 27 or February 28. In fact, themain purpose of all these anti-Kashmir operations is to secure votes inupcoming parliament elections and thus Kashmir is being put to flames forsatisfying the lust of power by Indian rulers which is highly condemnable,” thestatement said.
“A war has been unleashed against people of Kashmir tosatisfy manipulated collective conscience of Indian people who are being provokedthrough biased media channels and raucous debates by Indian leaders,” the JRLsaid.
Taking a dig at the “criminal silence” of the internationalcommunity, especially the world powers, the JRL said: “World is watching thetiny nation Kashmir being crippled undemocratically by military and policemight of India but is maintaining mum for safeguarding their economic, tradeand strategic ties with India which is highly regrettable.”
The JRL said: “Kashmiris have been witnessing hardships,crackdowns and military oppression from the last seventy years and theseatrocities will never succeed to defeat our passion for freedom and right toself-determination which is guaranteed to us by international covenants andagreements.”
Asking people of Kashmir to remain ready for “anyeventuality”, the JRL statement read: “Our lives, families, existence,resistance and everything are in danger and we as a nation should remainvigilant and be ready to launch a passionate people’s revolution against thishegemonic attitude of India”.