Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the Chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, has urged “the people of India and the world to wake up to the reality of Kashmir and understand that the issue has to be resolved.”
In a statement on Sunday, following the upsurge in protests in Jammu and Kashmir over the death of Burhan Wani, the Hizbul Mujahideen “commander”, the Chairman of the Hurriyat Conference said “the issue” would not die on its own.
‘Fighting for a basic right’He said Burhan Wani and his “two associates” represented “the fifth generation of Kashmiris” who since 1931 have been fighting for a “basic human right: to determine their political dispensation.”
He characterised the deaths of persons in the upsurge as having been “killed in cold blood.”
He termed it ironical that the Prime Minister should on the one be “paying tribute to the founding father of India’s freedom struggle, Mahatma Gandhi, by taking the same train journey in South Africa that Gandhiji took decades ago when he was moved and inspired to fight for India’s freedom — and on the other hand, that same day his regime executes the killing of innocent teenagers in Kashmir demanding the same right!”
The Mirwaiz further said that “for the sake of humanity, peace and progress in the region, the people of India need to know and understand the truth and reality of Kashmir and play their role in it.”
He said that the elections in Kashmir serve limited “administrative purposes, for basic infrastructural facilities and amenities. It has no bearing on the disputed nature of the issue, and this is where the distinction needs to be made and understood.”
It would be wrong, he said, to call “these young idealists ‘terrorists’” and asked, “At which terrorist’s funeral will you witness hundreds and thousands of men, women and children participating, defying restrictions, risking their lives, ready to face bullets and get killed?”
