Accusing the ruling dispensation led by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti of acting like “pawns and rubber stamps of New Delhi” Chairman Hurriyat Conference (M) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq Monday said the Darbar that has shifted to Srinagar is actually a “darbar of killers, not a darbar move.”
Talking to media men outside his Nigeen residence before being detained by the police, Mirwaiz said the mainstream leaders were killing Kashmiris to hold on to their power.
“Apparently Mehbooba Mufti is the Chief Minister of Kashmir but the fact is that she and her entire team are working on the directions of New Delhi,” Mirwaiz said. “To stay in the chair these people have pawned their conscience to their masters in New Delhi. They are watching like deaf and dumb the dance of death witnessed in Kashmiri villages every day”
Mirwaiz said that recently Mehbooba Mufti’s brother Tasaduq Mufti admitted to being “partners in crime.”
“We want to let them know that they are not simply partners in crime but partners in genocide of Kashmiris also,” Mirwaiz said. “A matter of grief for us and shame for them is that being Kashmiris they are partners in killing Kashmiris.”
Mirwaiz said that Government of India by its policy of extreme repression and atrocities is pushing “our next generation to the wall, forcing them to pick up arms and our intellectuals and scholars like Dr Muhammad Rafi feel forced to take this path.”
“It seems New Delhi wants to convert Kashmir into Afghanistan where children and youth from each home take to arms,” he said adding that the Hurriyat leadership believes that it is a well thought out plan to force Kashmiris to resort to armed and violent means of resistance so that by labeling them as “terrorists”, New Delhi-backed forces can commit “massacres.”
Mirwaiz said that Kashmir is witnessing the height of repression as all limits of atrocities have been crossed.
“People are craving for justice but all doors of justice have been closed on us. Kashmiris especially our youth who are our future are being targeted. In fact they are being hounded by the government forces who armed with unbridled powers like AFSPA bear no accountability for killing,” he said.
“Operation all out is a declaration of war against people of Kashmir and South Kashmir is bearing the biggest brunt of it where almost each day youth are being brazenly killed and critically injured. There seems to be no end to it”.
He said that in Sunday’s massacre, all those killed and injured have been hit by live ammunition above their waist with an intention to kill.
“There is only one policy visible on ground and that is shoot to kill, silence every voice protesting oppression and the endless miseries inflicted by the forces,” he said adding that South Kashmir has been handed over to forces and people there have been left at the mercy of forces “who are killing absolute impunity”
“Resistance leadership can’t remain mute spectator to this state of affairs,” Mirwaiz said.
He lamented that the civil society groups in India were silent. “Where are the champions of human rights, the intellectuals, civil society activists of India who once lobbied and convinced Kashmiris that they should keep their struggle for their basic rights non-violent?” Mirwaiz asked. “Why have they adopted silence now?
Mirwaiz said Kashmir issue was never about roads, development and jobs but it is a human and political issue that needs to be resolved as per the wishes of people by implementing the right to self-determination.