Srinagar
In occupied Kashmir, the Hurriyat forum led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has said that attempts at demographic engineering are completely unacceptable to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
The forum in a statement issued in Srinagar said, “Since 1947 there have been attempts to change the demographic character of Jammu and Kashmir and in August 2019 a final nail in the coffin was hammered in this regard. These attempts at demographic engineering are completely unacceptable to the people of Jammu and Kashmir who have totally rejected it.”
The statement said that executive members of the forum, Professor Abdul Ghani Butt and Bilal Ghani Lone, called on the ailing executive member of the amalgam, Maulana Abbas Ansari, at his residence in Srinagar and enquired about his health and later held a meeting there. It said that another executive member, Masroor Abbas Ansari, also participated in the meeting while the forum Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, could not attend as he continued to be under arbitrary house arrest since August 2019.
The statement said that the forum members at the meeting said that the Indian government should stop issuing domicile certificates to outsiders with the view to change the demographic character of occupied Kashmir which was causing great concern among the Kashmiri people and could have serious consequences for the region. They advised the Kashmiris to be very vigilant at this time and not sell their land or any property to outsiders at any cost.
They reiterated the forum’s basic stand that the dispute of Jammu and Kashmir has to be resolved peacefully as per the Kashmiris’ wishes and aspirations through dialogue among the three stakeholders – India, Pakistan and people of Jammu and Kashmir.
They said dialogue among the three stakeholders is the best method to resolve the issue that the Hurriyat leadership has consistently advocated and even participated in. The resolution of the Kashmir dispute is the best guarantee of real peace and subsequent prosperity in South Asia, they added, adding that they would continue to pursue persistently for peaceful resolution of the lingering dispute.
The statement said that the leaders also condemned the brutal killing of a civilian by Indian troops during a cordon and search operation in Sopore. It said that the images of a 3-year-old child crying at his martyred grandfather’s dead body are heart wrenching. It demanded an immediate end to the killings by the troops in the occupied territory.—INP
