NIA ‘kidnapped’ pro-freedom leaders: Malik

Army Chief acknowledges Kashmiris want freedom: Mirwaiz

Srinagar: Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) on Thursday called for complete shutdown on Jan 26 and appealed people to observe the day as ‘black day’.

Addressing a presser here at Mirwaiz’s Nigeen residence, Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik lashed out at Army Chief, Bipin Rawat for relating Kashmir’s indigenous movement with ‘terrorism’.

Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman asked Army Chief Bipin Rawat not to link Kashmir’s indigenous movement with ‘terrorism,’ as the pro-freedom camp is seeking resolution of the disputed territory in a peaceful manner.

Addressing a joint presser via telephone, Geelani said that Army Chief wants to link the pro-freedom leaders with ‘terrorism’ with an aim to target them openly.

“We want to inform the Army Chief that we don’t have guns, we are fighting for our rights in a peaceful manner. We are asking India to resolve Kashmir dispute by implementing UN resolutions, which India is a signatory,” he said, adding that the allegations levelled by the Army Chief are ‘baseless’.

He also said that the struggle will continue till the goal is achieved. “The Army chief has also said that what Kashmiris desire cannot be achieved, but we want to tell him that history stands testimony to the facts that the power and oppression has never succeeded, and won’t succeed in the future as well. We will continue our struggle and the goal we are aspiring for will be achieved,” he said, adding that people must follow the path of Islam, and Almighty Allah will help the people of Kashmir to achieve their goal.

Taking a dig at government for the continuous detention of pro-freedom leaders, who were arrested by NIA and ED, Geelani said that people of Kashmir don’t accept the charge sheet presented today against the detainees, as the government has failed to prove the allegations levelled against them regarding their involvement in ‘terror funding case’. “The allegations levelled against them are baseless,” Geelani said.

Reacting over the statement of Army Chief, Mirwaiz while addressing the media persons said that Rawat’s statement is his acceptance that the people of Kashmir want freedom. “The statements made by the Army Chief over education and Masjid’s reflects that he is not sticking to his chair only but other things too. The Army chief is meddling with other things as well,” he said.

Mirwaiz said that the persistent campaign of India and a section of media are trying their best to link the Kashmir’s movement with ‘terrorism’. “It is a political problem. The resolutions are pending at UN that India and Pakistan as well as world has acknowledged,” he said.

He said that the efforts to align Kashmiri struggle of self determination with terrorism is propaganda to distort facts and mislead people in India and outside.

“Kashmir is an internationally acknowledged dispute. It is a humanitarian problem, a tragedy where a temporary line is dividing families and friends. There are resolution pending regarding our future, to be decided through right to self determination at the UN that both India and Pakistan have ratified and the all countries of the world acknowledged. It was Indian PM Nehru who proposed referendum as a solution to the dispute,” he said.

“By equating Kashmir’s political struggle for the resolution of the lingering dispute that has lead to wars among neighbours, consumed lakhs of human lives especially our younger generation and is a cause of severe repression upon us to terrorism is deception,” he said.

He said that the Army Chief saying that people of Kashmir “Have realized they cannot get what they want” and “Let me tell you, with a country like India, to seek independence from a nation where we have strong armed forces, and very strong government u cannot secede from India,” is in fact acceptance of what people of Kashmir want and how military force is and will be used to prevent them from doing so. It is an open admission of occupation.

He said that “bullying us into submission through force by stationing lakhs of forces who have been given a legal license to kill and persecute us through laws like AFSPA, arresting and torturing at will and slapping draconian laws like PSA on those who politically resist repression, chocking all space for resistance and protests against human rights violations, curbing all civil and political rights of expression, bans and bars on movement of leadership are all acts of state. It seems that Kashmir has been handed over to military by New Delhi to take the call on how to handle it, that’s why the Army Chief makes frequent comments about not just military issues here but diktats on how Masjids and religious institutions will function how the educational institutions will be controlled and run.”

Speaking during the presser, Chairman of JKLF, Muhammad Yasin Malik alleged that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has not arrested pro-freedom leaders but has ‘kidnapped’ them. “The pro-freedom leaders who are behind the bars were not arrested but were literally kidnapped. They have been put behind the bars in a baseless case,” he said.

Reacting over the statement made by Army Chief, wherein he had stated that what ‘Kashmiris desire was not possible’, Malik said that the Mahatma Gandhi during his fight against the British rule once met the British officer and asked him how can the nation survive without economy and related things, the officer replied that ‘it is better to have the poor government of own people rather than foreigners’.

Malik said that the Kashmir’s every lane has witnessed the massacre while as in India only one Massacre took place, which is known as Jalian Wala Bagh. “By linking the ongoing freedom movement with the terrorism, the Army chief is trying to justify the killings in Kashmir,” he said, adding that “we would feel proud if we will be martyred.”

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