Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti drew flak from the joint separatist leadership on Monday for stating that Kashmiris should “stop inflicting pain on themselves” and “first we protest then we come with a bowl asking for money.”
In a statement, Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik said that Kashmiris were not beggars and once they become masters of their own resources they will have enough to prosper.
Apparently referring to the recent appointment of an interlocutor by New Delhi, the joint leadership said that the resilience of people of Kashmir “forced New Delhi to change its policy.”
The trio condemned the Chief Minister for “mocking and insulting people of Kashmir and their supreme sacrifices by calling them agitators first and beggars later.”
“The love of the chair has completely blinded her and her ilk of opportunists as they can’t see what havoc they have wreaked upon the people of Kashmir since their alliance with the BJP,” the leadership said. “Each day, a new hell is let loose on the people through the various agencies of forcible control that she presides over to break the will and determination of the people for demanding the just resolution of the internationally-recognised Kashmir dispute as per people’s will and aspirations.”
They said that the people of Kashmir bore the brunt of these “repressive measures” with such bravery and resilience that the government of India was compelled to reconsider its policy on Kashmir.
“No segment of society succumbed to this tremendous pressure including our traders and business community despite the fact that they were severely affected by the policy of revenge and punishment to which the local quislings were willing partners or mute spectators,” they said.
The leadership said that people of Kashmir do not need the largess of the government of India to survive.
“Once we are our own masters, our resources, both human and natural, are enough to make us prosper,” they said.
The leadership said that it is the integrity and tremendous resilience of the Kashmiri people that despite being no match for India in terms of population and resources, it has been “resisting its rule to achieve its fundamental political rights as a nation.”
“Such exemplary courage can only be exhibited by a morally and ethically conscientious people striving to uphold and achieve the fundamental human principle of freedom and the right to choose and making tremendous sacrifices for it. But exploiters and opportunists cannot understand such things,” the leadership said.
“Since 1947, because of many compromises for the chair, these people who are friends of none, not even India whose interests they claim to represent in Kashmir, people of Kashmir are in the grip of an ‘occupation’ which they help consolidate,” the statement said.
The leadership said that had the interest of the Kashmiri nation—political, economic or ethnic—ever been dear to the mainstream politicians, they would have stood their ground for safeguarding it than compromising these so often for power.
“The situation has come to such a pass today due to their repeated betrayals for the chair that even the basis on which their opportunistic patrons compromised the future of the nation and got some constitutional guarantees like Article 370 and Article 35A is on the verge of being scrapped for complete integration with India,” they said.
The leadership said that as part of the ploy to break the resolve of the people and crush the movement, a multipronged strategy based on use of “extreme force and coercion has been adopted by BJP particularly after entering into a power alliance with the PDP.”
“The same PDP whose patron when he was home minister of India imposed AFSPA in J&K. All segments of society were targeted. While people were killed with impunity, pellet guns were brought to blind them and inflict physical and psychological scars. Thousands of people especially youth including children and elderly labelled as stone pelters have been incarcerated and tortured. Propaganda as a war weapon vigorously promoted against people while leadership persecuted and harassed through NIA and other agencies leading to the illegal detention of some in jails. CASO launched to persecute people in villages especially as a witch hunt against the youth,” the leadership said.
They said that a fake association between tourism and terrorism had been created to target those associated with trade and tourism in order to break the back of both these industries.
“Travel agents throughout India were threatened with dire consequences by the RSS that no tourists should be sent to Kashmir, while GST law that ended Kashmir’s fiscal autonomy in total violation of Article 370 was implemented and the return of our power projects was out-rightly rejected,” the statement read.
“To further dent the local trading market and create a fear psychosis among the people, shameless act of braid chopping was undertaken and given the name of ‘hysteria,’” the statement added.
“Instead of feeling ashamed that not a single culprit was brought to book for attacking the dignity of our women and traumatising them, Mehbooba Mufti is justifying the act casually as something that happens elsewhere also,” the leadership said.
The leadership expressed surprise and dismay that some traders and members of the business community played into the hands of those in power and gave them an opportunity to insult the supreme sacrifices offered by the people.
“We urge all segments of society that as collective custodians of the sacrifices of the nation to be cautious and refrain from providing any opportunity to these collaborators to insult and mock us and to expect no help from them as has been proven time and again,” the leadership said.
‘Kashmiris are not beggars’, Joint Resistance leadership slams Mehbooba’s remarks
