Detailed Video Report | People of India misled by state narrative on Kashmir: Mirwaiz

‘Despite provocations, Kashmiris never harmed any non-local’

Srinagar, Feb 22 : Chairman Hurriyat Conference (M) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday said the people of Kashmir have been watching with dismay the treatment meted out to Kashmiri students, traders, shawl sellers and businessmen in a “systematic manner”.

He said in Jammu itself, Kashmiri employees and families were targeted and dozens of vehicles torched by “anti-Kashmir anti Muslim fanatics”.

Addressing the Friday congregation at historic Jamia Masjid here, Mirwaiz said: “The anti-Kashmir hatred later spread to other states of India where Kashmiri students, were beaten harassed and in some cases rusticated from their respective colleges and universities, while the goons targeting them were given a free hand. Even the Governor of Mizoram (sic) called for boycotting of Kashmiri products and Kashmiris.”

According to a statement issued to KPS, he demanded that authorities ensure safe passage of every single Kashmiri back to their homeland.

Mirwaiz reminded the people of India how Kashmiri youth first saved non-state residents including forces personnel in the deadly deluge of 2014 while in 2008 Amarnath land agitation, not a single yatri or non-state resident was ever attacked despite provocation.

“Despite the fact that we are at the receiving end of repression and Kashmiris are killed brutally yet not even a single non-local has ever been harmed here or forced to flee. It is because Kashmiri people do not believe in communal hatred or victimization and every non-local will always be as safe in Kashmir as the common Kashmiri,” he said.

Hurriyat (M) chairman said when the attack happened last week at Pulwama, Kashmiris regretted it as “we believe that every human life is precious and every human has a right to live, yet our lives and human rights are not trampled and we are killed with impunity and incarcerated under draconian PSA”.

Kashmir is a political issue and time and again, I have said that Kashmir has no military solution instead it needs political handling solution, he said.

“Didn’t Hurriyat talk to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but the new dispensation never revisited its approach and instead resorted to use of sheer force. This force has forced our young generation towards arms,” he added.

Mirwaiz said the people of India are being misled by a state narrative on Kashmir that obfuscates the fact of it being a dispute. “J&K is not Bihar, Himachal or any other state but an internationally accepted disputed territory divided between India and Pakistan. The state narrative to blame Hurriyat for all the troubles is sheer propaganda as the fact remains that Kashmir movement is not associated to any individual or organisation but it a mass people’s movement for the realization of their genuine political aspirations,” he said.

“I want to tell New Delhi that by removing security cover, booking resistance leaders by NIA and ED, incarcerating and caging and harassing them, the leadership will not change its stance as our stand is was based on principles and truth that people of Kashmir have to be given their legitimate right, the right to resolution of dispute,” he said.

Mirwaiz said he will continue to speak the same thing and advocate the same ideology that he told to Vajpayee ji and Manmohan Singh. He said he would continue to advocate the stand of his late father ‘Shaheed-e-Millat’ on the resolution of Kashmir either through right to self determination or through tripartite dialogue, and goodwill and friendship between the nuclear neighbours for the prosperity of their people.

Mirwaiz lauded all those who came to the aid of Kashmiris in this time of distress. He said the role of Sikh community in Punjab and Jammu especially Khalsa Aid that helped Kashmiris by offering them vehicles and lodging them in Gurudwaras and homes is highly appreciable. Kashmiri people acknowledge the role played by the Sikh community, he said.

Mirwaiz also said the talk of strikes against Pakistan and starting a war, will only lead to destruction in the entire subcontinent as both nations are nuclear powers. This, he said, will achieve no solution as in the past.

Kashmiris, Mirwaiz said, are against war and violence. “We are only asking for resolution of the dispute by peaceful means, the most effective being dialogue. History is witness that nations even after fighting wars, have still to sit on a negotiating table to hammer out a solution,” he said.