Srinagar, Mar 06: Pitching for revocation of AFSPA, Hurriyat-M chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq Tuesday said that people of Kashmir are at great risk as long as this law remains in force.
In a statement issued in the backdrop of Sunday night’s Shopian killings, Mirwaiz in a statement issued by Hurriyat-M said that the situation in Kashmir is extremely grim and fast deteriorating by the day as “more than 13 civilians have been brutally killed by the forces in the last six weeks alone.”
According to the statement, he said that government forces enjoy complete immunity from any accountability or legal prosecution under the cover of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
He said most of these killings have taken place in the Shopian district where around eight civilians – all young men and teenagers — have been killed including a 17-year-old girl Saima Wani. “Even lactating mothers have not been spared as two young mothers of infants were also killed.”
Mirwaiz said that “rampant killing of Kashmiris is becoming the order of the day and it seems that it is a part of the military solution that is promulgated by the government as a way of dealing with the Kashmir conflict.”
He said as no responsibility is fixed for these killings and there is no accountability, “the highly worrisome reality is that the lives of the people of Kashmir are perpetually at great risk unless the AFSPA is abolished. As long as AFSPA remains in force, the unaccounted killings of Kashmiris will continue and we will keep losing our young and old men and women.”
Mirwaiz once again urged upon international human rights organizations to take cognizance of the extremely grave human rights situation in the Valley and highlight it at the global level.
He said “the silence of the Indian human rights organizations, activists, humanists, print media, writers, and columnists at the rising graph of gruesome killings in Kashmir each day is extremely sad and discouraging.”
Mirwaiz also said that the situation along the LoC and international border is no better with civilians and soldiers dying on both sides and the situation there could anytime escalate into a full-scale war.
