SRINAGAR: Awami National Conference (ANC) chief Khalida Shah has written letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking to restore special status of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state and resolve Kashmir issue.
She also also asked Modi to take steps to put an end to campaigns that portray Kashmiri Muslims as “villians” throughout the world.
In a letter spread over seven pages, Khalida has told Modi that the bill on abrogation of Article 370 tabled by the home minister has misinformed the Parliament. Article 370, shah has written, is part of the constitution basic structure incorporated with the wishes of the constituent assembly of JK state.
“It cannot be repealed, abrogated, or amended. It is not a legal issue alone but a political commitment translated into a constitutional guarantee, arrived after protracted negotiations between two sovereign people,” reads the letter.
“An overwhelming majority of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh has not accepted this blatant violation of the constitution and they will settle for nothing short of restoration of Article 370 to its original form and a settlement of the vexed Kashmir issue,” it added.
According to Shah, war is no answer to this problem with nuclear weapons pointing in all directions with no possible answers. The repeated conspiracies, she wrote, since 1953 by New Delhi are the root cause of mistrust in the people in the state.
“Another attempt to repeat the sordid drama of 1953 by bringing in individuals and groups not mandated by the people to represent them will be the nail in the mistrust between Delhi and Kashmir,” she said.
“Article 371 and statehood cannot be an alternative to article 370 and article 35A. A Kashmir has an international dimension with 45 % of the original state’s area and 20 % of its population (as of Oct 26th , 1947) sliced away over years between china and Pakistan,” the letter reads.
Khalida has also questioned the Government of India’s logic of spending around 200/300 crores per day in presence of close to nine lakh security forces in Kashmir countering less than 200 reported militants at any given point time. She accused that information fed to people through ‘hired media’ is shocking and far from the truth.
Shah further in her letter has drawn attention to 90,000 Kashmir Muslims who have been killed, 20,000 disappearances, 15,000 women widowed and thousands of homes blown up in various operations. No one talks, she writes, about the Gaw Kadal, Amamgari Bazar, Zakoora, Hawal, Sopore, Kalaroos, Handwara, Anantnag, Khanyar killings.
Regarding the Pandith exodus in 1990 from the Kashmir Valley, Shah has told Modi that it is venomous and false potrayel to hold kashmir Muslims responsible for it. She wrote that it was Jagmohan administration to transport Pandiths from the Valley instead of combating the situation on ground with the help of forces which were well equipped with the situation.
She also told Modi that about 3 lakh Kashmiri Muslims were forced to migrate out of the valley without any help from the administration. All have suffered alike in Kashmir during 1990’s.
“Can we blame the majority for their silence in such a situation? The answer is big no,” she writes, and adds that about 4000 Kashmiri Pandith families refused to migrate and are to date fearlessly in complete camaraderie living alongside their Muslim brothers.
Shah had enclosed a letter written by renowned Kashmiri Pandiths in 1990s about their opinion on their migration in which they hold no Muslim responsible for it.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz