NEW DELHI: All Parties Hurriyat Conference has said keeping its leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq forcibly away from the pulpit of Srinagar’s central mosque in India-held Kash­mir was extremely sad and tragic.

“This oppressive measure seems fundamentally aimed at gradually eroding the Muslim character of the state by undermining its Islamic practices, traditions and symbols in the name of so-called integration. One fails to understand any other reason for silencing the pulpit of central Jamia Masjid since August 2019,” said APHC in a statement issued on Friday.

Jamia Masjid Srinagar is the most representative symbol of the indigenous Muslim identity and tradition of Kashmir.

APHC in its statement also pointed out that arbitrary raids on people’s homes and organisations across the state, and arrests especially of youth continued unabated.

Highlighting urgency to resolve Kashmir issue, APHC says killings and disappearances continue in the ‘world’s most militarised zone’

“Besides, killings and disappearances also continue in the world’s most militarised zone. The need for resolution of the Kashmir conflict is urgent as ever.”

The statement warned of widespread resentment growing against the Indian government’s land policy in the fractured state where, according to Hurriyat, outsiders were being handed over parcels of land allegedly to change the demography of the predominantly Muslim state.

The fear of demographic change and disempowerment among people of Jammu and Kashmir got further strengthened by such repressive actions, APHC said.

Expressing serious concern, Hurriyat said the drastic changes brought to the land laws of India-held Jammu and Kashmir by the authorities in the name of “reforms” that end the owner’s right to hold on to properties on lease, and plans to outsource these properties afresh online was another attempt to “disempower the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and take away their land on which they by natural principle have the first right and to settle outsiders here”.

It was a grave issue that affected the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of Jammu and Kashmir people directly and indirectly associated with the tourism sector, and the people were greatly resenting it, the statement added.

APHC said authorities should withdraw such diktats and not further add to the peoples’ woes.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2022



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