Srinagar
In occupied Kashmir, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Gilani, Hurriyat forum led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and all other Hurriyat leaders and organisations have condemned India’s efforts to mislead the world by arranging a strictly guided visit of Delhi-based envoys to the territory. The APHC in a statement in Srinagar said the tour was a desperate attempt by the Modi government to show the world that all is well in occupied Kashmir. It said that such nefarious tactics could not change the ground realities and the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir. Senior Hurriyat leader, Professor Abdul Ghani Butt, in a statement in Srinagar said, the world knows about the Kashmir dispute, about the UN resolutions on Kashmir and resent close-door consultations on Kashmir by the UN Security Council. He said that the envoys should focus on the resolution of the Kashmir dispute and demand withdrawal of Indian troops and repeal of draconian law, Armed Forces Special Powers Act, from occupied Kashmir. The Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat forum maintained that if the normalcy had returned to occupied Kashmir as India was trying to project, then New Delhi should have allowed envoys to move about freely and interact at their will with common people, members of civil society, journalists, politicians and illegally detained Hurriyat leaders. Other Hurriyat leaders and organizations including Muhammad Farooq Rehmani, Abdul Majeed Malik, Imtiaz Wani and Abdul Hameed Lone in their separate statements said that instead of arranging controlled visits of hand-picked envoys.—KMS
