SRINAGAR – Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Dr Umar Farooq on Wednesday said that removing of Indian Army’s bunkers in Handwara district was a good sign and that the process needs to be extended to other parts of the state too.
“Removal of bunkers at Handwara is a good sign, though a late development. We demand all bunkers be removed from wherever they exist in Kashmir,” he told the Greater Kashmir newspaper. He said that the bunkers were the main cause of innocent killings in the state.
“We have been demanding demilitarisation in Kashmir and now it is high time the process be started with removal of bunkers from all villages, towns and cities,” he demanded. Calling violence in Rajouri’s Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University as unfortunate, Hurriyat spokesman said it was responsibility of the administration to protect students and to stop communal and extremist elements on the campus.
Terming the clashes among the students as a cause of concern, he urged students from the Kashmir valley, and other areas of the disputed state to live peacefully with love and brotherhood and focus their attention and energies on studies. He also called the curbs imposed by the state administration on Mirwaiz Dr Umar Farooq, who has been placed under house arrest for the past more than a week now, as inhuman, unjustified and undemocratic.
The spokesman said that the Hurriyat chairman was being stopped from performing his religious, social and political obligations. By placing such severe restriction on the movement of the chairman, the spokesman said the government had made clear its policies of aggression against him. He said that people were being victimised by aggression and violence carried by the state which was not only a violations of human rights but also an example of political vendetta.
