Pro-India parties being ruled by army in Kashmir: Mirwaiz

Srinagar, January 18: Chairman of All Parties Hurriyet Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has urged pro-India parties to resign from power politics for being ruled by the Indian army.

In a media interview in Srinagar, the APHC Chairman asserted that Indian army was virtually ruling Jammu and Kashmir and enjoying absolute control over politics and  administration.

Mirwaiz said if the affairs continued to be controlled by the army, time might not be far off when, instead of talking to the political leadership, the Kashmiris might have to talk to army generals for resolution of the Kashmir dispute.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said that the utterance of an army general that India would be forced to liberate Kashmir by 2016, if the black law, Armed Forces Special Powers Act was revoked even from some parts “vindicates that India is holding Kashmir through its military might and draconian laws.” It also substantiates that Kashmiris don’t want to live with India,” he remarked.

“In light of these remarks, we hope that Indian rulers will acknowledge the harsh realities and start dialogue with pro-freedom leadership of Kashmir and Pakistan for just solution of Kashmir issue,” the Mirwaiz added. “Indian leadership should realize that it had failed to forcefully suppress the Kashmiri people’s struggle.”

The APHC Chairman also called upon puppet Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to seek apology from the people for having prank with them in the name of revocation of the black law, AFSPA. “When India isn’t ready to revoke AFSPA even partially, how it can settle the Kashmir dispute,” he questioned.

The Mirwaiz said that pro-India PDP and NC were playing vote politics on AFSPA while the APHC and other pro-liberation parties demanded complete revocation of draconian laws as a confidence building measure for the final settlement of the Kashmir dispute.

Mirwaiz said Kashmir was merely a political dispute, but had a tragic humanitarian aspect as well. He demanded a probe by international rights groups and agencies into the unmarked graves issue and other rights abuses perpetrated by the Indian forces in occupied Kashmir.