As top separatist leaders on Wednesday issued a shutdown call on August 29, the day the Supreme Court (SC) is hearing a petition on Article 35A, Union Minister of State (MoS) Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Jitendra Singh was briefed about the security situation.
The separatist leaders, Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, issued a five-day protest calendar in the run up to the hearing on Article 35A, which defines special rights of J&K residents on property, jobs etc.
“Any meddling with State subject law is aimed at changing J&K’s demography. This issue is directly related to our right of self-determination. We all need to fight for it with unity and steadfastness,” said the separatists in a joint statement.
Describing Article 35A “a matter of life and death”, the separatists said, “We will spill our blood to safeguard it.”
In a major public campaign against any attempt to revoke it, the separatists called for protests from August 25 up to 29. They asked lawyers to hold protest demonstrations in their districts on August 25.
“While all civil society, traders bodies, religious and social organisations will organise peaceful protests on August 26, Kashmiri diaspora will hold protests on August 27,” reads the protest calendar.
It asked the people of the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) “to hold protest demonstrations too”.
“All Kashmiris living across the globe will register their protest on the social media on August 29. A complete and comprehensive protest strike will be observed too in J&K,” it said.
Warning of mass agitation, the separatists said, “If the SC issues any adverse orders, an agitation will be started from that very moment.”
The SC is hearing three petitions challenging the validity of the Article.
Need for organised movement: Dr. Abdullah
Meanwhile, National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah also called for “united fight against the attempts to abrogate Article 35A”.
“Jammu or Kashmir or Ladakh have to come together over the issue,” said Mr. Abdullah, who met a civil society group, ‘We the people of J&K’, which is spearheading a campaign against the revocation, on Wednesday.
Mr. Abdullah said he hoped that the Hurriyat leaders too would “listen to the civil society members”. “There is need for an organised movement,” said Dr. Abdullah.
In Jammu, S.P. Vaid (DGP) briefed Mr. Singh “about the current security situation in J&K” on Tuesday evening.
The issue saw regional parties, both ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the National Conference (NC), and the separatists taking one stand.
