Chairman Hurriyat Conference (M) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq Friday said that army’s job was to fight equally trained opponents and not to boast killing untrained teenagers in Kashmir. The Mirwaiz was reacting to the northern army commander’s assertion that 2018 was remarkable for the army as record number of militants were killed in the year.
Addressing the Friday congregation at the Jamia Masjid here, Mirwaiz termed the statement of army commander as “extremely unfortunate and inhumane.”
“It is strange that a well-trained armed force, meant to fight another well trained armed force, is celebrating and patting its back on killing young men including budding intellectuals and academics, and boys as young as 14, calling it remarkable,” said Mirwaiz, who is a key leader of Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL).
Northern army commander Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh yesterday said the year 2018 was “remarkable for army as 250 militants were killed in Kashmir, the highest in last 10 years.”
Mirwaiz said those killed were not “hard core armed guerrillas and terror mongers, but sentiment-driven youth forced to take to arms as a consequence of severe repression due to forcible control.”
“What they (youth) feel is failure of political means to express what is essentially a political demand for self-determination. It is simply the intensity of their passion that drives these young boys, who are poorly trained and starved of ammunition to be able to give a real fight in this greatly unequal battle, to an armed force of a country,” he said. “And yet these boys do, and give up their precious lives for the cause they hold dear. The pain and loss that all of Kashmir feels at their martyrdom only adds to people’s resolve and pushes more young to join in.”
The Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman said that instead of admitting this, the armed force of a country that prides itself in the history of its freedom struggle by honouring the likes of Subhas Chander Bose who raised the Indian National Army to fight the British, sells the killing of Kashmiri youth as a great achievement to the people of India.
“Many in Indian army have in their write-ups and lectures admitted that J&K is a political problem that has to be resolved as such. We have been time and again saying that Kashmir issue is purely political in nature and it can’t be resolved through military approach,” he said.
Mirwaiz said that today the whole world reiterates that there can be no military solution to Kashmir issue.
“Those who are using militarisation to prolong the status quo should understand that it comes with a cost and keeps increasing complexities,” he said.
Mirwaiz said that while the incumbent Governor S P Malik has said that government does not want to kill militants but militancy and that if it was so and they are sincere, “then government should address the cause that is leading the educated and young boys to take to arms, start a political process to address the sentiment behind it and resolve the dispute.”
“It will not only save the lives of our youth but of the soldiers also,” he said. The Mirwaiz said that the message resistance leadership wants to convey to Governor was loud and clear: “End militarization and the atrocities which are the main reason for uncertainty and hostility in the region for past over 70 years.”
Mirwaiz said that people of Kashmir have been fighting for the right to self-determination in a most peaceful way and that it was the “worst form of repression that is forcing youth to pick up arms.”
“Kashmiris will not surrender and will intensify their efforts to get their legitimate birth right promised by the global community,” he announced.