A day after his name figured in the list of 18 separatists whose security cover was withdrawn by the government, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik said he wondered what the government withdrew when he never had security in the past 30 years.
Addressing reporters at Front office here, Malik said the government on Wednesday announced that it had withdrawn security cover of all 18 separatists, including Syed Ali Geelani and Muhammad Yasin Malik, besides 155 politicians.
“Kashmir’s media fraternity is witness (to the fact) that I have never had any security cover,” said the JKLF chief.
Malik said two days before security of four resistance leaders was withdrawn, BJP’s general secretary Ram Madhav had tweeted that “Geelani and Malik had no security cover”.
“In 1996, the then inspector general of security wing of police offered me security but I refused,” Malik said.
“I was again offered security when Moulvi Mushtaq was killed. I told the police officials that I don’t need any cover because life and death is in the hands of God. I even gave them in writing that I don’t need any security cover.”
Malik said the government offered him security twice again—when senior Hurriyat leader Fazul-Haq Qureshi was attacked and when Jamiat-e-Ahlihadith president Moulana Showkat Ahmed was killed—but he declined. This time also he gave in writing that he doesn’t need security men guarding him.
“When I didn’t accept any security for the last 30 years, why then a malicious campaign is being run that my cover has been withdrawn,” he said.
He said such actions are doomed to fail if aimed at building pressure on the resistance leaders.
“The Kashmir struggle is our romance and love and we are not afraid of death. Our romance with this struggle will continue,” Malik said.
Later, talking to Greater Kashmir on the sidelines of the press conference, the JKLF chief said that targeting Kashmiri students in various parts of India and forcing them to flee would have serious ramifications on the psyche of Kashmir’s youth.
“What if those forced to flee back to Kashmir and the young boys who are watching the treatment meted out to Kashmiri students outside would pick up guns tomorrow? What would those at the helm in New Delhi today say then?” Malik said and called for an end to such attacks.