Srinagar, Apr 12: Hurriyat-M chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told a Friday congregation at Jama Masjid here today that the elections would have no bearing on the Kashmir issue even as he maintained that separatists would not change their stand on Kashmir issue due to “coercion”.
“It is our policy that Kashmir issue has to be resolved. If not today, but tomorrow, there has to be a peaceful solution to the issue. There is no option before India, Pakistan and the Kashmiri leadership than to address the issue.
“We will not change our stand because of this policy of use of force or coercion,” he said addressing the people who had gathered for Friday prayers at the Jama Masjid.
The separatist leader said Kashmir is a political issue which has to be resolved politically.
“Governments will come and go, but the basic issue will remain there till it is not resolved,” he said.
The Hurriyat-M chairman said and the people of Kashmir and the armed forces of India and Pakistan were “getting consumed” in the conflict, but New Delhi “is not taking any initiative” aimed at resolving the issue.
The Mirwaiz returned to the Valley on Thursday after spending three days in New Delhi where he was questioned by the NIA in connection with a case related to “funding of militant groups and separatist organizations” in Jammu and Kashmir.
He said that pressure was mounted on leadership through ED and NIA to silence the voices seeking resolution of the Kashmir dispute, and even as his house was raided and many notices were sent to him.
Mirwaiz said that a “collective decision” was taken after which he decided to face the NIA in New Delhi, where he said he was asked about the various organisations which he heads including Anjuman Auqaf Jamia, Anjuman Nusrat-ul-Islam, Dar-ul-khair APHC and AAC, “details of which they had seized during the raids, as well recommendations for visa to Pakistan by Kashmiris and recommendation to medical colleges in Pakistan about which I appraised them.”
Mirwaiz said his life and Hurriyat’s stand is an open book and there is nothing to hide.
He said that APHC believes that Kashmir is a lingering political issue that has to be resolved. There is no other alternative than its resolution.
He said Kashmir is yearning for a peaceful resolution since 1947 and that today Kashmir’s’ fourth generation is getting consumed demanding the peaceful solution of the issue.
Mirwaiz also said that pulpit of Jama Masjid “represents the aspirations of people of Kashmir who have sacrificed a lot for its peaceful resolution.”
Mirwaiz also said that the present prevailing political situation in Kashmir is highly sensitive and fragile stating that the “indiscriminate use of pellet guns resulting in the killings of innocents is extremely painful” and cited the killing of Class 7th student Owais Mushtaq Mir in Handwara are of Kupwara yesterday.
He said that the international community including the United Nations in its report had called for a complete ban on use of pellet guns in Kashmir. Recently the EU parliamentarians have also asked Government of India to ban the use of pellet guns, but despite this, its use continues here.
“The scars left by the lethal pellet guns in 2016 are still fresh as many youth were killed and blinded and yet it is unfortunate that the use of pellets continues unabated in Kashmir with the result that a budding flowers was crushed forever”.
Mirwaiz also criticised the ban on civilian traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu highway twice a week calling it an “autocratic decision” by the rulers leading to great hardship and difficulties for the people.
He said after the ‘Pulwama episode’ (suicide bombing), “repressive measures against people have increased.”
