Srinagar: Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman and Jamia Masjid’s head cleric, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was Friday allowed to address the faithful after two consecutive weeks at the historic Jamia Masjid in downtown as he was detained under house detention.

Mirwaiz as per the statement issued here termed the present situation in Kashmir as ‘gravely disturbing’ and ‘worrisome’ as the killing of civilians especially youth continued unabated and there is no let up in the use of brute force.

Mirwaiz said since the forces enjoy unbridled powers and impunity under draconian law called AFSPA, killing unarmed civilians is a routine affair and no one is held accountable.

“In such severe cold weather, forces continue with the harassing CASO operations in villages across South, North and Central Kashmir causing great hardships for the residents of these places,” Mirwaiz said.

Mirwaiz said on one hand, the ruling regime announces some sort of “amnesty “to the ‘stone pelters’ on the other hand, killings, blinding torture and arrests of youth continues.

Mirwaiz said under the patronage of the ruling dispensation, the forces on ground zero have let loose a reign of terror as everywhere in Kashmir there is fear, repression and tales of atrocities.

He said people are badly caught in this vicious circle of oppression and there is no let up to it.

He said all space for resistance stands choked, the resistance leadership is regularly placed under house arrest or lodged in  jails by the ruling regime to prevent them from reaching out to the masses, the situation has reached a point where even peaceful seminars  held indoors or and simple meetings  with people are a threat to them and not allowed. “Even addressing religious gatherings is disallowed now,” he said.

Mirwaiz said it is the moral duty of the international community to intervene and play its role to put an end to the various form of human rights violations that are being committed by lakhs of forces and other state agencies present in Kashmir, who are on the path of eliminating Kashmiris by systematically killings and maiming the young lot first.

He said international community needs to persuade New Delhi to accept the ground reality in Kashmir and the ensuing conflict  and to start a meaningful exercise to resolve the long pending dispute as per the wishes and aspirations of people of the land so that peace prevails in the South Asia and we can get out of this situation.

Mirwaiz said  in the given circumstances where all peaceful means of registering protest and resistance stand choked,  and all forms of expressing our feeling of grief and anger banned and barred and gagged our options to do so are extremely limited .  “Observing complete strike against the gruesome civilian killings and other atrocities is one way left to us to register our protest and anger over it,” he said.

Mirwaiz urged people to observe complete shutdown on January 13 (Saturday) against the unabated civilian killings by the ‘trigger-happy’ forces.

He also urged people to remain steadfast towards the ongoing movement, which has priceless sacrifices at its back.

Guest