Mirwaiz slams Govt for failing to provide sadak, bijli, pani to people
After three weeks authorities allowed Friday congregational prayers at historic Jamia Masjid while Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in his sermon from the grand mosque slammed the government for failing to provide “better roads, adequate drinking water and power supply” to people in the winter.
No restrictions were imposed in downtown areas today and there was no bar on people to offer Friday prayers at historic Jamia Masjd today.
People including men and women in large numbers offered the Friday prayers at Jamia.
The authorities had disallowed Friday prayers at Jamia for three consecutive weeks in view of the protests called by the separatists.
The authorities today also lifted curbs on Mirwaiz and he delivered Friday sermon at the Jamia.
In his sermon, he said people are facing brutalities from forces and civil administration.
“On the one hand people are being harassed and brutalized by forces in the name of CASO and other counter militancy operations by burning and razing down their houses. The civil administration, on the other hand, has deprived people of basic facilities in this severe cold. Such tactics won’t help them to suppress our voice. The more you suppress us the more we will rise,” Mirwaiz said.
He said the civil administration is “torturing” people by depriving them from basic amenities of life. “Kashmir is abundant in power and water resources. But we are facing darkness. Our electricity has been looted by others. This is another form of brutality. When people are deprived of basic amenities, it is form of terror and brutality.”
Mirwaiz said that now it has become common “to hear about gruesome road accidents mostly in Chenab Valley, Kishtwar and Doda areas because of the bad condition of roads.”
“The government has failed to provide better roads to people. Accidents on roads have become order of the day in the state as roads are in worst conditions,” said Mirwaiz.
He said while electricity is “nowhere to be seen” people of Kashmir have been left without drinking water also. “The women folk in rural areas walk miles to fetch water from springs. There is no irrigation supply in most of the rural Kashmir,” Mirwaiz added.
Slamming the ruling PDP-BJP dispensation over frequent curbs and restrictions, Mirwaiz said the government has broken all records. “Even we are not allowed to hold traditional religious obligations. As Mirwaiz I am not allowed to fulfill my religious obligations. The authorities have restricted me to four walls of my house,” he said.
“I wasn’t allowed to address decades old traditional Majlis-e-Waz-o-Tableeg at Dastgeer Saheb Khanyar yesterday. I pray to Almighty Allah to deliver us from this yoke of suffering and subjugation,” he said.
Mirwaiz said that by such “strict curbs, government wants to suppress Kashmiris economically.” “But God’s help is with us . . . We have mercies of God. We will fight against this oppression till we achieve our goal,” he said.
