Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday said August 5 would be remembered as a “day of betrayals and constitutional frauds” committed upon J&K.
“Today the party reiterates that August 5 is and will continue to be a Black Day as a reminder of the constitutional fraud perpetrated on people of J&K and that of how this fraud was imposed with the might of incarcerations and under the dark shadow of suspension of civil liberties,” said party spokesman Suhail Bukhari, in a statement. “It is a day that is now etched in history and collective memory of us all as a proverbial daylight robbery on the rights and liberties of people of Jammu and Kashmir when promises made to the people of J&K enshrined in the constitution of India were bulldozed.”
He said the state was “dismembered, downgraded, humiliated and stripped of its dignity.” “This has not just devastated the foundations of the trust people of J&K had put in the Constitution but also pulverized the fledgling mainstream,” Bukhari said.
He said exactly a year after J&K continues to be in social, economic, political and communication lockdown. “None of the stated goals of the government that were used to camouflage the betrayal, of bringing Kashmir closer to India, ending militancy, bringing development to the state, have been achieved. While many political, business leaders and lawyers have been released in the recent past, many continue to be in detention, the most prominent among them being former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti,” he said.
On this “Black Day”, Bukhari said the party condemned the “continued atrocities” on people of Jammu and Kashmir by the BJP, adding the PDP President Mehbooba Mufti completed one year in detention and all the top leaders were under house arrest.
He said while the government had imposed curfew all over the Valley and many areas in Jammu, it has also “illegally” arrested frontline leaders of the party in overnight raids, adding the party condemned the arrest of PDP leaders including Firdous Tak, Sheikh Naseer, Umar Malik and Abdul Rauf Bhat.
The spokesperson said the unilateral move taken by the government of India to “settle the contours of the issue” without consultation of stakeholders was akin to “chasing a mirage.”