Awami Ittihaad Party chief and MLA Langate Er Rasheed on Friday “congratulated” CM Ms Mehbooba Mufti for her confession that army and task force have been subjecting people to unpaid forced labour and committing “atrocities” on unarmed civilians in Kashmir during last few decades.
In a statement issued this afternoon, Rasheed said, “whatsoever the intensions of Mehbooba Mufti in making the revelations public would have been but it should act as an eye-opener for world community that a person not less than the rank of CM is authenticating the allegations and charges what common Kashmiris especially those from remote areas, have been talking about all these years, but going unheard, as India’s propaganda machinery would often label them as anti-India elements or Pakistani agents.”
“Not only during her press conference, where she lost her cool, but a day before that she had revealed at an official function the same and thus GoI should not only take all those army, police and other personnel to task who were operating a state within state,” he said.
“The people in various parts especially Langate, were subjected to humiliating and most painful tasks by army in around 50 villages during which not only many lost their lives but the inhabitants don’t even want to think of that terrible period,” the MLA Langate said.
Rasheed added that there can be no better coincidence that the fact that when Ms Mehbooba Mufti lost her cool while referring to forced labour and atrocities, just two hours before her press conference, “AIP delegation had given Rajnath Singh the details, facts and figures related to this terrible forced labour in Langate and adjoining areas”.
“After Mehbooba’s revelations, it is duty of Mehbooba Mufti herself, Indian state, world community and human rights organisations to intervene and ensure that those in uniform who have committed shameless crimes against Kashmiris by various ways and means including subjecting thousands to forced labour for about 15 years and made huge financial benefits out of it, be identified, probed and punished within a stipulated time,” he said.
However, Rasheed reminded Mehbooba Mufti that she “wanted to take credit for something which she had nothing to do, as people not she forced army and task force to abandon the terrible process by launching mass public campaigns from 2003 and the resistance is still on”.
“However, she should visit various localities in Kulgam, Shopian and Uri where army is still subjecting people to forced labour one way or the other but have been scared to reveal all it,” Rasheed said.
