On a cold and wet Friday night while the streets of Srinagar were deserted, there was a slight murmur of activity in the city’s Press Enclave. Under a tent, the maverick MLA of Langate, Engineer Rashid, had sat on a 24-hour hunger strike to protest against police atrocities.
He sat there braving cold and incessant rains till the first light of morning shone over the city. It was only in the afternoon when he had completed his 24 hours of strike did he break his hunger strike.
“From pro-resistance leadership to common men every Kashmiri has a deep desire that our children who are victims of conflict, brutalities and state terrorism should get best education. Despite all propaganda Kashmiri youth has proved its worth not only in competitive exams but outside India as well,” Er Rashid told the media persons.
He said that Kashmiri scholars and scientists have performed miracles and wonders in various fields. “Despite frequent strikes, facing humiliation on daily basis at the hands of security forces Kashmiri students have been doing far better than anyone else in routine exams,” he added.
“There is no dearth of enemies of Kashmir who want Kashmiris to deprive from education and are using it as a well designed and well crafted measure to make it a campaign that Kashmiris want schools and colleges closed frequently.”
He said that while students have every right to express their sentiments and they must on rare occasions carryout peaceful processions but need not to forget that getting education and improving their talent has to be their basic objective and political matters should be left to the leaders. He appealed to the families of policemen to intervene and ask their bread earners working in J&K police to show restrain and not forget that they are part of the society and cannot always fight their own people through bullets and pellets and still run away.
“Every single cop needs to realize that hundreds of policemen too have lost their near and dear ones at the hands of security forces or during protests seeking right to self-determination and kids of policemen too are also part of the protests everywhere, as being Kashmiris they have the same sentiments as that of every Kashmiri.”