People across Kashmir should resume their normal life on Monday, the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) has said, even as it called the National Investigation Agency’s summons to Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed NaseemGeelani as “sheer political vendetta”.
In a statement issued here Sunday, the JRL said there is nocall for any shutdown on Monday and that any future program would becommunicated to the people.
“The NIA summons to Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Geelani’s son Syed Naseem, asking them to present themselves before the NIA’s office in New Delhi on Monday, is sheer political vendetta which deserves strongest condemnation,” the statement read, adding:
“The NIA raids on the residences of leaders and their relatives, followed by summoning them to New Delhi, are fresh attempts to build pressure on the pro-resolution leadership to push them into submission so that they stop pursuing the resolution of the Kashmir issue”.
The JRL said that in the past, the NIA and other agencies ofthe government of India conducted raids on residences of “pro-resolve (sic)leaders, including women leaders, and later arrested them, many of whomcontinue to languish in New Delhi’s Tihar jail for the past almost two yearswithout trial.”
The JRL said they “won’t come under any pressure and face the fresh onslaught of Delhi in the form of NIA and ED raids and summons with full resilience, and continue to pursue the cause of truth and justice, for which lakhs of Kashmiri people have offered tremendous sacrifices and continue to do so.”
“We have always advocated for a peaceful resolution of the (Kashmir) issue and have nothing to do with ‘terror funding’.
These fake charges and the propaganda around it are being pursued for electoral gains by those at the helm,” the statement read, adding: “Seeking right to self-determination for Jammu and Kashmir is no crime for which the leadership is being persecuted.”
The JRL hailed the support extended to it by traders,transporters and other segments of the society and thanked them for the same.
“Normal life should be resumed on March 11. Any futureprogram will be communicated to people,” the statement read.