Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Black Laws a punishment for no crime
Black Laws a punishment for no crime
Sheikh Yasir
The draconian laws such as Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (POTA), Public Safety Act (PSA), Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) enforced in Indian occupied Kashmir have given full impunity to the occupying forces to kill Kashmiris and destroy their properties. Under the shield of these laws, Indian troops are accountable to none for killing, torturing or keeping in custody any Kashmiri civilian.
The political leaders are not even allowed to carry on their political activities ,when the draconian PSA is slapped every now and then on whoever is held in custody. Under this act, a person can be detained for a period of two years without producing him in a court of law. India in order to show seriousness needs to repeal the black laws, release all the political detainees and disclose the whereabouts of thousands of disappeared Kashmiris.
India has tried for many times to hoodwink the international community by making false shows of its seriousness. The so-called roundtable conferences are one of those tricks. APHC leaders have boycotted such conferences convened by Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh on the valid ground that the agenda items of the conferences were related to the internal problems of the occupied territory and had nothing to do with the basic conflict. These leaders contend that they are ready to any talks but the exercise should be result-oriented to resolve the dispute once and for all.
While trying to embalm the bruises and lacerations inflicted on the soul and psyche of the people of Manipur, who were all fire against the draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, following rape and murder of a woman allegedly by the Indian forces, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had last year announced his government's decision to soon modify the act ostensibly as part of the steps to address the grievances of the people.
Dr Singh is reported to have told in a public rally at Imphal that by modifying existing provisions, or inserting new provisions in AFSPA, it would be made more humane, giving due regards to the protection of basic human and civil rights. It is here in place to mention that this incident had forced the government of India to set up a committee to review the law, which gives sweeping powers to its forces to trample over the human rights with impunity and without ever having any fear of an adverse notice before a judicial forum. For six years, Irom Sharmila the iron lady of Manipur has been protesting the indefensible Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
This act that is less draconian in letter has been even more draconian in spirit. Since it was imposed, by official admission alone, more than 20,000 people have been killed in Manipur. Rather than curbing insurgent groups, it has engendered a seething resentment across the land, and fostered fierce militancy.
When the Act came into force in 1980, there were only four insurgent groups in Manipur. Today there are 25 on the Government's own watch-list. While as in Kashmir, despite a clear recede in the number of militant outfits nothing on ground has changed with respect to the rights violations by the troopers. Showering bullets on the innocent people, forced by the circumstances at home, to move outside their home during night, is no more a new phenomenon. Hundreds of innocents of this ill-fated valley have so for fell to the senseless firing of troopers during nights, even after having necessary lighting arrangement along with them.
Day in and day out, human rights organizations, international or otherwise, have been expressing their grave concern over the rights abuses perpetrated by the troopers in the state but despite assurances galore and more particularly Prime minister Manmohan Singh's "zero tolerance" clamors the situation with respect to rights abuses has worsened to such a level that people have started to treat the scenario as a part of their routine life.
Taking of zero tolerance quite volubly and uttering words of sympathy time and again, is all the power pundits at the state as well as central level could do at best to play prank with the traumatized masses as none of them has ever witnessed the pain and trauma that an ordinary person of this area is put to undergo because of these black laws. Besides national as well as international level human rights organizations have also been fervently antagonizing imposition of these barbaric laws from the very beginning. Going by the reports, just in few previous weeks near about a dozen of people irrespective of age, sex and status have been killed by the troopers across valley with total impunity. Ironically, half a dozen innocents were relieved of their right to live all around the human rights day.
Incidentally, the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly during the past 19years, has been worse as compared to all other regions of India. Ghastly incidents could make any government worth its name hang its head in shame. But, there is no let up in the atrocities being heaped particularly on the innocent civilian population in the strife torn region in the name of anti-militancy operations. The move to humanize the draconian laws like the AFSPA or, may be the notorious Disturbed Areas Act, may, in all likelihood, prove of no avail what-so-ever. Primarily because these seek to immunize the armed forces against legal action in the event of any criminal act like illegal detention, abduction, rape, custodial torture or killing and the like the region has been witness to on a massive scale over the years.
Even the magisterial and judicial investigations the government ordered in countless cases have failed to bring the perpetrators to justice like in the infamous Pathribal killings. Obviously, there can be no human rights as long as the draconian laws remain in force. Instead of feigning to "humanize" the laws, the least the government should do is to repeal them out rightly; India needs to show its sincerity just by doing away with these barbaric laws that have been spelling sleepless nights and restless days to the common men in occupied Kashmir.
Sheikh Yasir
The draconian laws such as Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (POTA), Public Safety Act (PSA), Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) enforced in Indian occupied Kashmir have given full impunity to the occupying forces to kill Kashmiris and destroy their properties. Under the shield of these laws, Indian troops are accountable to none for killing, torturing or keeping in custody any Kashmiri civilian.
The political leaders are not even allowed to carry on their political activities ,when the draconian PSA is slapped every now and then on whoever is held in custody. Under this act, a person can be detained for a period of two years without producing him in a court of law. India in order to show seriousness needs to repeal the black laws, release all the political detainees and disclose the whereabouts of thousands of disappeared Kashmiris.
India has tried for many times to hoodwink the international community by making false shows of its seriousness. The so-called roundtable conferences are one of those tricks. APHC leaders have boycotted such conferences convened by Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh on the valid ground that the agenda items of the conferences were related to the internal problems of the occupied territory and had nothing to do with the basic conflict. These leaders contend that they are ready to any talks but the exercise should be result-oriented to resolve the dispute once and for all.
While trying to embalm the bruises and lacerations inflicted on the soul and psyche of the people of Manipur, who were all fire against the draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, following rape and murder of a woman allegedly by the Indian forces, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had last year announced his government's decision to soon modify the act ostensibly as part of the steps to address the grievances of the people.
Dr Singh is reported to have told in a public rally at Imphal that by modifying existing provisions, or inserting new provisions in AFSPA, it would be made more humane, giving due regards to the protection of basic human and civil rights. It is here in place to mention that this incident had forced the government of India to set up a committee to review the law, which gives sweeping powers to its forces to trample over the human rights with impunity and without ever having any fear of an adverse notice before a judicial forum. For six years, Irom Sharmila the iron lady of Manipur has been protesting the indefensible Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
This act that is less draconian in letter has been even more draconian in spirit. Since it was imposed, by official admission alone, more than 20,000 people have been killed in Manipur. Rather than curbing insurgent groups, it has engendered a seething resentment across the land, and fostered fierce militancy.
When the Act came into force in 1980, there were only four insurgent groups in Manipur. Today there are 25 on the Government's own watch-list. While as in Kashmir, despite a clear recede in the number of militant outfits nothing on ground has changed with respect to the rights violations by the troopers. Showering bullets on the innocent people, forced by the circumstances at home, to move outside their home during night, is no more a new phenomenon. Hundreds of innocents of this ill-fated valley have so for fell to the senseless firing of troopers during nights, even after having necessary lighting arrangement along with them.
Day in and day out, human rights organizations, international or otherwise, have been expressing their grave concern over the rights abuses perpetrated by the troopers in the state but despite assurances galore and more particularly Prime minister Manmohan Singh's "zero tolerance" clamors the situation with respect to rights abuses has worsened to such a level that people have started to treat the scenario as a part of their routine life.
Taking of zero tolerance quite volubly and uttering words of sympathy time and again, is all the power pundits at the state as well as central level could do at best to play prank with the traumatized masses as none of them has ever witnessed the pain and trauma that an ordinary person of this area is put to undergo because of these black laws. Besides national as well as international level human rights organizations have also been fervently antagonizing imposition of these barbaric laws from the very beginning. Going by the reports, just in few previous weeks near about a dozen of people irrespective of age, sex and status have been killed by the troopers across valley with total impunity. Ironically, half a dozen innocents were relieved of their right to live all around the human rights day.
Incidentally, the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly during the past 19years, has been worse as compared to all other regions of India. Ghastly incidents could make any government worth its name hang its head in shame. But, there is no let up in the atrocities being heaped particularly on the innocent civilian population in the strife torn region in the name of anti-militancy operations. The move to humanize the draconian laws like the AFSPA or, may be the notorious Disturbed Areas Act, may, in all likelihood, prove of no avail what-so-ever. Primarily because these seek to immunize the armed forces against legal action in the event of any criminal act like illegal detention, abduction, rape, custodial torture or killing and the like the region has been witness to on a massive scale over the years.
Even the magisterial and judicial investigations the government ordered in countless cases have failed to bring the perpetrators to justice like in the infamous Pathribal killings. Obviously, there can be no human rights as long as the draconian laws remain in force. Instead of feigning to "humanize" the laws, the least the government should do is to repeal them out rightly; India needs to show its sincerity just by doing away with these barbaric laws that have been spelling sleepless nights and restless days to the common men in occupied Kashmir.
The Start of Gen 3rd struggle 2008
The New York Times
August 22, 2008
Kashmir Rumbles, Rattling Old Rivals
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
SRINAGAR, Kashmir — Born and reared during the bloodiest years of insurgency and counterinsurgency, inheritors of rage, a new generation of young Kashmiris poured into the streets by the tens of thousands over the past several weeks, with stones in their fists and an old slogan on their lips: “Azadi,” or freedom, from India.
Their protests in Indian-controlled Kashmir were part of an unexpected outburst of discontent set off by a dispute over a 99-acre piece of land, which has for more than two months been stoked by both separatist leaders in Muslim-majority Kashmir and Hindu nationalists elsewhere in India.
Overnight, the unrest has threatened to breathe new life into the old and treacherous dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, which is claimed by both nations and lies at the heart of 60 years of bitterness between them, including two wars.
Disastrously for the Indian government, Kashmir has burst onto center stage at a time of growing turmoil in the region — with the resignation this week of Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, who had sought to temper his country’s backing for anti-Indian militancy here.
Even though the two countries have been engaged in four years of peace talks, India has grown nervous that the disarray in Pakistan has left it with no negotiating partner. From New Delhi’s perspective, that power vacuum has allowed anti-Indian elements in Pakistan’s intelligence services and the militant groups they employ to pursue their agenda with renewed vigor.
Relations between the countries have become newly embittered as Indian and Pakistani forces have engaged in skirmishes across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between them for the first time in years.
Not least, India has blamed the Pakistani intelligence services for playing a hidden role in the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan last month, a charge that Pakistan vehemently denies.
The latest unrest here has only added to the difficulties of renewed dialogue.
How long this agitation will continue depends on both India’s capacity to assuage Kashmiri separatist leaders, and their ability in turn to control the sudden eruption of rage among the young.
The largest, most intense demonstration in years took place on Monday, as tens of thousands of Kashmiris, mostly men, streamed into an open area in the city center to demand independence from India. They came in motorcycle cavalcades, and on the backs of trucks and buses.
A few waved Pakistani flags. Some shouted praise for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the banned Pakistan-based militant organization that India blames for a series of terrorist attacks in recent years. “India, your death will come,” they chanted. “Lashkar will come. Lashkar will come.”
By Tuesday, traffic had returned to the city, as the separatists called for a three-day suspension of the strike. Shops and cafes reopened. The pro-Pakistan graffiti had been covered up, as though it were again an ordinary day.
Another mass gathering, however, is planned for Friday at the martyrs’ cemetery, where two generations of those killed in the conflict are buried, with all the potential to become yet another flash point of conflict.
Again and again, Kashmiris from across the political spectrum said these scenes reminded them of the peak of the anti-Indian rebellion in the early 1990s, except at that time, separatist guerrillas, aided by Pakistan, openly roamed the streets with guns.
Nineteen years after that rebellion kicked off, the current demonstrations have pierced what seemed, perhaps deceptively to the Indian government, like a return of the ordinary here.
Earlier this year, tourists were flocking to Dal Lake in Kashmir. Buses were running twice monthly so that Kashmiris could visit their relatives across the de facto border in the Pakistan-controlled region of Kashmir. A bookshop opened for the first time in nearly two decades.
“Before the storm, there is always a calm,” a Kashmiri woman, Assabah Khan, 34, declared. “The uprising we see now is the latent anger against the Indian state that has erupted again.”
Narendra Nath Vohra, the governor of the Indian-controlled Kashmir state, compared life in Srinagar today to darkness at noon.
In the last few weeks, tourists all but disappeared. Schools and offices closed. The main city hospital was filled with Kashmiris shot and wounded by Indian security forces.
Mehmeet Syed, who only a few months ago could sing her heart out on stage with her five-piece rock band, remained caged in her home, as her city erupted in a series of fiery protests and strikes. On the road leading to the Syed family home, children guarded a homemade roadblock the other day, clutching stones.
On Monday, on the edges of an open field where tens of thousands had gathered to vent their anger at Indian rule, Abdul Gani Mir, 62, marveled at a young man who had scaled a chinar tree to plant a green Islamic flag.
Mr. Mir said being here filled him with hope. “We succumbed, but I don’t think this generation will,” he said, and then he chuckled. “I wish I were young.”
His niece was among 20 unarmed Kashmiri protesters killed by Indian security forces last week, as they set off on a march to Muzaffarabad, in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
Sheik Yasir Rouf, 27, said he had never before taken part in a demonstration so large, so intense. He was a child in the early 1990s, when the anti-Indian rebellion was at its peak. “This feeling was always there,” he said. “We are fighting for our one right to be free.”
“Sooner or later, this had to be,” insisted his friend, Shahid Rasool, also 27.
Mr. Rouf said he had spent 15 days in jail during his senior year in high school, accused of harboring militants. Mr. Rasool was picked up by security forces and interrogated all night; he was 16 years old.
The trouble in the valley began two months ago, quite unexpectedly, over 99 acres of state government land that, for decades, had been used by Hindu pilgrims on the route to a Himalayan shrine called Amarnath.
In May, the authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir authorized the panel that runs the pilgrimage site to put up “prefabricated structures” for pilgrims. The order enraged Muslims.
With state elections scheduled for this year, some politicians and separatist leaders pounced on the decision and declared it a bid to re-engineer the demography of Kashmir. Hard-line Islamists compared it to the Israeli occupation of Muslim holy lands.
The government soon rescinded the order, but nothing, as Governor Vohra pointed out, actually changed — Hindu pilgrims still used the land, and they still came this year in record numbers.
Nevertheless, the retraction of the original order enraged people in the Hindu-majority plains of Jammu, which is part of the same state. They, too, began agitating by the tens of thousands. And they, too, were goaded by politicians and hard-line leaders.
All told over the past two months, the protests here in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley and counterprotests led by Hindu groups in the plains below, have left a death toll of nearly 40 in clashes with security forces.
The two sides remain at each other’s throats. Muslims in the valley allege that Indian troops have been quick to halt their protests, while letting Hindus in the plains carry on their agitation.
Hindu leaders in the plains were outraged that the government allowed anti-Indian separatists to march through the valley carrying Pakistani flags.
Many Indians regard the rebellious tableau in the valley as an unexpected affront. Kanwal Sibal, a retired diplomat, suggested in a livid column on Tuesday in Mail Today, an English-language newspaper, that unlike China with its Tibet policy, India has never sought to alter Kashmir’s Muslim-majority demography.
The latest fury, he suggested, “shows the failure, and perhaps the futility, of efforts to win the hearts and minds of the valley Kashmiris.”
Kashmiri public opinion is hardly uniformly anti-Indian, and the pro-Pakistan current is one among many. But distrust runs deep. Rumors travel and harden equally fast.
Muslims here complain that Indian security forces roam the streets, and they can recount at least one memory, usually more, of humiliation and fear.
“It is a volcano that has erupted,” Shad Salim Akhtar, 54, a doctor, said of the latest agitation.
That volcano kept Ms. Syed, the Kashmiri singer, at home. She had a video shoot scheduled for her new solo album; it has been postponed. Her father, Ahmad, a doctor was considering running in the elections this fall, but he is no longer sure.
Dr. Syed, 46, said he had just been getting used to the sense of the ordinary returning to his city. The guards at checkpoints were less aggressive than before. He did not worry much about his daughter’s concerts. “Three, four months ago, we thought, ‘It’s all over now, nothing to worry about,’ ” Dr. Syed said.
That is all over now, his daughter lamented. “Will that day come when we can move around freely?” she asked. “It is a dream.”
Amit Wanchoo, a Kashmiri Hindu and the leader of her band, Imersion, was also mostly staying home, leaving plenty of time to write new songs. One was dedicated to those killed last week.
“The sky is saying something, the air is saying something,” the lyrics went. “Where are my people, whom I met here?”
Yusuf Jameel contributed reporting.
August 22, 2008
Kashmir Rumbles, Rattling Old Rivals
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
SRINAGAR, Kashmir — Born and reared during the bloodiest years of insurgency and counterinsurgency, inheritors of rage, a new generation of young Kashmiris poured into the streets by the tens of thousands over the past several weeks, with stones in their fists and an old slogan on their lips: “Azadi,” or freedom, from India.
Their protests in Indian-controlled Kashmir were part of an unexpected outburst of discontent set off by a dispute over a 99-acre piece of land, which has for more than two months been stoked by both separatist leaders in Muslim-majority Kashmir and Hindu nationalists elsewhere in India.
Overnight, the unrest has threatened to breathe new life into the old and treacherous dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, which is claimed by both nations and lies at the heart of 60 years of bitterness between them, including two wars.
Disastrously for the Indian government, Kashmir has burst onto center stage at a time of growing turmoil in the region — with the resignation this week of Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, who had sought to temper his country’s backing for anti-Indian militancy here.
Even though the two countries have been engaged in four years of peace talks, India has grown nervous that the disarray in Pakistan has left it with no negotiating partner. From New Delhi’s perspective, that power vacuum has allowed anti-Indian elements in Pakistan’s intelligence services and the militant groups they employ to pursue their agenda with renewed vigor.
Relations between the countries have become newly embittered as Indian and Pakistani forces have engaged in skirmishes across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between them for the first time in years.
Not least, India has blamed the Pakistani intelligence services for playing a hidden role in the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan last month, a charge that Pakistan vehemently denies.
The latest unrest here has only added to the difficulties of renewed dialogue.
How long this agitation will continue depends on both India’s capacity to assuage Kashmiri separatist leaders, and their ability in turn to control the sudden eruption of rage among the young.
The largest, most intense demonstration in years took place on Monday, as tens of thousands of Kashmiris, mostly men, streamed into an open area in the city center to demand independence from India. They came in motorcycle cavalcades, and on the backs of trucks and buses.
A few waved Pakistani flags. Some shouted praise for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the banned Pakistan-based militant organization that India blames for a series of terrorist attacks in recent years. “India, your death will come,” they chanted. “Lashkar will come. Lashkar will come.”
By Tuesday, traffic had returned to the city, as the separatists called for a three-day suspension of the strike. Shops and cafes reopened. The pro-Pakistan graffiti had been covered up, as though it were again an ordinary day.
Another mass gathering, however, is planned for Friday at the martyrs’ cemetery, where two generations of those killed in the conflict are buried, with all the potential to become yet another flash point of conflict.
Again and again, Kashmiris from across the political spectrum said these scenes reminded them of the peak of the anti-Indian rebellion in the early 1990s, except at that time, separatist guerrillas, aided by Pakistan, openly roamed the streets with guns.
Nineteen years after that rebellion kicked off, the current demonstrations have pierced what seemed, perhaps deceptively to the Indian government, like a return of the ordinary here.
Earlier this year, tourists were flocking to Dal Lake in Kashmir. Buses were running twice monthly so that Kashmiris could visit their relatives across the de facto border in the Pakistan-controlled region of Kashmir. A bookshop opened for the first time in nearly two decades.
“Before the storm, there is always a calm,” a Kashmiri woman, Assabah Khan, 34, declared. “The uprising we see now is the latent anger against the Indian state that has erupted again.”
Narendra Nath Vohra, the governor of the Indian-controlled Kashmir state, compared life in Srinagar today to darkness at noon.
In the last few weeks, tourists all but disappeared. Schools and offices closed. The main city hospital was filled with Kashmiris shot and wounded by Indian security forces.
Mehmeet Syed, who only a few months ago could sing her heart out on stage with her five-piece rock band, remained caged in her home, as her city erupted in a series of fiery protests and strikes. On the road leading to the Syed family home, children guarded a homemade roadblock the other day, clutching stones.
On Monday, on the edges of an open field where tens of thousands had gathered to vent their anger at Indian rule, Abdul Gani Mir, 62, marveled at a young man who had scaled a chinar tree to plant a green Islamic flag.
Mr. Mir said being here filled him with hope. “We succumbed, but I don’t think this generation will,” he said, and then he chuckled. “I wish I were young.”
His niece was among 20 unarmed Kashmiri protesters killed by Indian security forces last week, as they set off on a march to Muzaffarabad, in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
Sheik Yasir Rouf, 27, said he had never before taken part in a demonstration so large, so intense. He was a child in the early 1990s, when the anti-Indian rebellion was at its peak. “This feeling was always there,” he said. “We are fighting for our one right to be free.”
“Sooner or later, this had to be,” insisted his friend, Shahid Rasool, also 27.
Mr. Rouf said he had spent 15 days in jail during his senior year in high school, accused of harboring militants. Mr. Rasool was picked up by security forces and interrogated all night; he was 16 years old.
The trouble in the valley began two months ago, quite unexpectedly, over 99 acres of state government land that, for decades, had been used by Hindu pilgrims on the route to a Himalayan shrine called Amarnath.
In May, the authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir authorized the panel that runs the pilgrimage site to put up “prefabricated structures” for pilgrims. The order enraged Muslims.
With state elections scheduled for this year, some politicians and separatist leaders pounced on the decision and declared it a bid to re-engineer the demography of Kashmir. Hard-line Islamists compared it to the Israeli occupation of Muslim holy lands.
The government soon rescinded the order, but nothing, as Governor Vohra pointed out, actually changed — Hindu pilgrims still used the land, and they still came this year in record numbers.
Nevertheless, the retraction of the original order enraged people in the Hindu-majority plains of Jammu, which is part of the same state. They, too, began agitating by the tens of thousands. And they, too, were goaded by politicians and hard-line leaders.
All told over the past two months, the protests here in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley and counterprotests led by Hindu groups in the plains below, have left a death toll of nearly 40 in clashes with security forces.
The two sides remain at each other’s throats. Muslims in the valley allege that Indian troops have been quick to halt their protests, while letting Hindus in the plains carry on their agitation.
Hindu leaders in the plains were outraged that the government allowed anti-Indian separatists to march through the valley carrying Pakistani flags.
Many Indians regard the rebellious tableau in the valley as an unexpected affront. Kanwal Sibal, a retired diplomat, suggested in a livid column on Tuesday in Mail Today, an English-language newspaper, that unlike China with its Tibet policy, India has never sought to alter Kashmir’s Muslim-majority demography.
The latest fury, he suggested, “shows the failure, and perhaps the futility, of efforts to win the hearts and minds of the valley Kashmiris.”
Kashmiri public opinion is hardly uniformly anti-Indian, and the pro-Pakistan current is one among many. But distrust runs deep. Rumors travel and harden equally fast.
Muslims here complain that Indian security forces roam the streets, and they can recount at least one memory, usually more, of humiliation and fear.
“It is a volcano that has erupted,” Shad Salim Akhtar, 54, a doctor, said of the latest agitation.
That volcano kept Ms. Syed, the Kashmiri singer, at home. She had a video shoot scheduled for her new solo album; it has been postponed. Her father, Ahmad, a doctor was considering running in the elections this fall, but he is no longer sure.
Dr. Syed, 46, said he had just been getting used to the sense of the ordinary returning to his city. The guards at checkpoints were less aggressive than before. He did not worry much about his daughter’s concerts. “Three, four months ago, we thought, ‘It’s all over now, nothing to worry about,’ ” Dr. Syed said.
That is all over now, his daughter lamented. “Will that day come when we can move around freely?” she asked. “It is a dream.”
Amit Wanchoo, a Kashmiri Hindu and the leader of her band, Imersion, was also mostly staying home, leaving plenty of time to write new songs. One was dedicated to those killed last week.
“The sky is saying something, the air is saying something,” the lyrics went. “Where are my people, whom I met here?”
Yusuf Jameel contributed reporting.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Tribute to the Founder.
MUJAHID-I-MILLAT FOUNDATION.
Chandpora, Harwan Srinagar
Tribute
13th May 1951,Sheikh Abdus Salam Dalal (Mujahid-i-Milat) breathes his last.
Mujahid-I-Milat was the revolutionary leader who kept the momentum of freedom movement in Kashmir even after Mirwaiz Moulana Mohammad Yousuf Shah(RA) and other pro resistance leaders were forced to migrate to Azad Jammu &Kashmir under the banner of Muslim Conference. He was a renowned businessman, educationist and a political visionary. He was a brave voice and emerged as a legendary hero like Spartacus in roman empire. He would go from locality to locality and speak for the freedom of Jammu and Kashmir.
Mujahid-I-Milat was the one of the founders of Muslim conference which started the freedom struggle of the state from the autocratic rulers. He was the general secretary of Muslim conference and was political advisor of Mirwaiz Moulana Yousuf shah (RA).
Mujahid-I-Milat a born revolutionary,he organized protest rallies and processions against the autocratic rule of Dogras and was several times imprisoned. He was active since 1931 when he had only joined FSC. He was a good orator and founded the night schools to educate the working artisans and used to fund this venture himself and made latest publications available in these schools.
Mujahid-I-Milat was a strong pleader of independent Jammu and Kashmir and the right to self determination of the oppressed people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Your contributions towards the freedom struggle are leading the people Jammu and Kashmir in this time even after 59 years of your death as a torch light towards the path which was forseen by you and your companions. Your affection,noble charcter,positive and realistic approach ,patience courage will lead the people to the resolution of Jammu and Kashmir .
Today people of Jammu and Kashmir collectively remember the sacrifices of yours and pay homage , rich tributes and pray to almighty that your mission will be fulfilled and the dispute of Jammu and Kashmir be resolved according to the wishes and aspirations of people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Publicity secretary
Mujahid-i-Milat Foundation
Chandpora, Harwan Srinagar
Tribute
13th May 1951,Sheikh Abdus Salam Dalal (Mujahid-i-Milat) breathes his last.
Mujahid-I-Milat was the revolutionary leader who kept the momentum of freedom movement in Kashmir even after Mirwaiz Moulana Mohammad Yousuf Shah(RA) and other pro resistance leaders were forced to migrate to Azad Jammu &Kashmir under the banner of Muslim Conference. He was a renowned businessman, educationist and a political visionary. He was a brave voice and emerged as a legendary hero like Spartacus in roman empire. He would go from locality to locality and speak for the freedom of Jammu and Kashmir.
Mujahid-I-Milat was the one of the founders of Muslim conference which started the freedom struggle of the state from the autocratic rulers. He was the general secretary of Muslim conference and was political advisor of Mirwaiz Moulana Yousuf shah (RA).
Mujahid-I-Milat a born revolutionary,he organized protest rallies and processions against the autocratic rule of Dogras and was several times imprisoned. He was active since 1931 when he had only joined FSC. He was a good orator and founded the night schools to educate the working artisans and used to fund this venture himself and made latest publications available in these schools.
Mujahid-I-Milat was a strong pleader of independent Jammu and Kashmir and the right to self determination of the oppressed people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Your contributions towards the freedom struggle are leading the people Jammu and Kashmir in this time even after 59 years of your death as a torch light towards the path which was forseen by you and your companions. Your affection,noble charcter,positive and realistic approach ,patience courage will lead the people to the resolution of Jammu and Kashmir .
Today people of Jammu and Kashmir collectively remember the sacrifices of yours and pay homage , rich tributes and pray to almighty that your mission will be fulfilled and the dispute of Jammu and Kashmir be resolved according to the wishes and aspirations of people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Publicity secretary
Mujahid-i-Milat Foundation
Mirwaiz asks Mainstream PDP to join if they were serious in solving kashmir dispute
Join Us If You Are Serious?“Whenever National Conference or PDP are out of power, they speak about rights violations,” Mirwaiz told . He said if PDP president, Mehbooba Mufti and her colleagues are so concerned about the rights abuses, they should immediately resign from the Assembly and join the people’s movement.
Mirwaiz’s reaction came in the backdrop of PDP legislators protest march on Tuesday. Mehbooba along with 11 PDP legislators were detained after they took out a protest march against the alleged rape and murder of two young women in south Kashmir district of Shopian.
“PDP has the best opportunity to prove that the party is not trying to draw any political mileage out of this serious issue,” Mirwaiz said and added that the history is, however, witness that the Kashmir’s mainstream parties stand for the people’s sentiment only when they are out of power.
Ridiculing the chief minister Omar Abdullah’s remarks that the pro-freedom groups were trying to derive political mileage out of the Shopian incident, Mirwaiz said nobody could play politics with an unfortunate incident involving the chastity of our mothers and sisters. “Should we remain silent on what has happened in Shopian?” he quipped.
Accusing the chief minister of trying to hush up the issue, Mirwaiz said as announced by the chief minister, the probe is going to take one month. “I ask him in such a grave situation, how so much of time could be justified,” he said and added that it is just a Government tactics to hush up the matter.
“Right from Chattisinghpora to Wandhama incidents, findings of not a single probe were made public. The government wants to bury this issue as well,” he said.
Mirwaiz said that pro-freedom groups would launch massive agitation against the Shopian incident. “This issue is much bigger than any party or individual as the dignity of our daughters and sisters is at stake,” he said and added that all the pro-freedom parties should work together in this testing moment.
Mirwaiz said the Hurriyat Conference would chalk out the future course of action on Friday after consulting all its constituents. “We will try to take everybody along on this sensitive issue,” he said.
Asked whether there was any communication going on between two factions of Hurriyat, he said, “Shabir Shah Sahib was expected to meet Geelani Sahib, but I think he has been arrested. Insha Allah something good would come out in the interest of the nation,”
JKMMF hails Pak Prime minister's Statement
JKMMF hails Pak Prime minister's Statement and urged the GOI to take seriously what has been said by Pak Prime minister Mr. Yousuf Raza Gilani:
Said,"today asked “occupying forces” in Jammu and Kashmir to stop repression, while offering Pakistan’s “political, moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people for their right to self determination” and said the issue must be resolved through a “constructive and purposeful” dialogue with India.
“We also hope that Indian occupying forces will cease human rights abuses and violence will come to an end and a conducive atmosphere will be created for the final settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” Gilani said addressing the Azad Kashmir Council comprising representatives from governments of Pakistan and AJK.
Gilani said the Kashmir issue holds the key to durable peace in the region. He pointed out that Pakistani Parliament has passed resolutions “expressing solidarity of the people of Pakistan for the people of Kashmir.”
In their several statements, the top leadership of Pakistan “condemned the use of force and demanded respect for human rights of the people of Kashmir,” Gilani said.
“These statements and resolutions are a true reflection of the sentiments of the entire Pakistani nation,” he said.
His comments came days after Congress-led UPA government assumed office for the second five-year term in India.
“Pakistan remains committed to finding a just and peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions and aspirations of the Kashmiri people,” Gilani said in his policy statement at the start of a new session of the AJK Council.
He said the issue must be resolved through sincere dialogue in order to open up vast opportunities for the socio-economic development of the South Asian region. Pressing for resumption of the Composite Dialogue between India and Pakistan, Gilani listed the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service and commencement of cross-LoC trade as the Kashmir-related confidence building measures (CBMs) implemented during the past few years.
The frequency of bus services between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad and Poonch and Rawalakot had been increased and cross-LoC trade had started, he noted. “These CBMs have been guided by our desire to reduce the sufferings of Kashmiris and (to) help to create an environment conducive for the settlement of this dispute,” he said.
“Following the Mumbai incident, India has put a pause on the composite dialogue. Pakistan has stressed the need for engagement and resumption of the composite dialogue,” he said.
“We have pressed upon India that focus of the efforts of the two countries should remain on countering terrorism which is the real issue and not mutual recrimination,” Gilani said.
He hoped that the peace process would resume soon and “become result-oriented in addressing all outstanding issues, including J-K.”
“We firmly believe that for a durable solution, Kashmiris should be associated with the dialogue process,” Gilani said. He said the indigenous uprising in Jammu and Kashmir ignited by the Amarnath shrine issue last year had added “another sad chapter to the sufferings of the Kashmiri people.”
“They were subjected to a prolonged economic blockade; their lives and properties were attacked. Many Kashmiris were martyred, including Sheikh Abdul Aziz, a prominent Hurriyat leader,” Gilani said, adding these events reflected the indigenous struggle of the Kashmiris for independence."
Said,"today asked “occupying forces” in Jammu and Kashmir to stop repression, while offering Pakistan’s “political, moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people for their right to self determination” and said the issue must be resolved through a “constructive and purposeful” dialogue with India.“We also hope that Indian occupying forces will cease human rights abuses and violence will come to an end and a conducive atmosphere will be created for the final settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” Gilani said addressing the Azad Kashmir Council comprising representatives from governments of Pakistan and AJK.
Gilani said the Kashmir issue holds the key to durable peace in the region. He pointed out that Pakistani Parliament has passed resolutions “expressing solidarity of the people of Pakistan for the people of Kashmir.”
In their several statements, the top leadership of Pakistan “condemned the use of force and demanded respect for human rights of the people of Kashmir,” Gilani said.
“These statements and resolutions are a true reflection of the sentiments of the entire Pakistani nation,” he said.
His comments came days after Congress-led UPA government assumed office for the second five-year term in India.
“Pakistan remains committed to finding a just and peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions and aspirations of the Kashmiri people,” Gilani said in his policy statement at the start of a new session of the AJK Council.
He said the issue must be resolved through sincere dialogue in order to open up vast opportunities for the socio-economic development of the South Asian region. Pressing for resumption of the Composite Dialogue between India and Pakistan, Gilani listed the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service and commencement of cross-LoC trade as the Kashmir-related confidence building measures (CBMs) implemented during the past few years.
The frequency of bus services between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad and Poonch and Rawalakot had been increased and cross-LoC trade had started, he noted. “These CBMs have been guided by our desire to reduce the sufferings of Kashmiris and (to) help to create an environment conducive for the settlement of this dispute,” he said.
“Following the Mumbai incident, India has put a pause on the composite dialogue. Pakistan has stressed the need for engagement and resumption of the composite dialogue,” he said.
“We have pressed upon India that focus of the efforts of the two countries should remain on countering terrorism which is the real issue and not mutual recrimination,” Gilani said.
He hoped that the peace process would resume soon and “become result-oriented in addressing all outstanding issues, including J-K.”
“We firmly believe that for a durable solution, Kashmiris should be associated with the dialogue process,” Gilani said. He said the indigenous uprising in Jammu and Kashmir ignited by the Amarnath shrine issue last year had added “another sad chapter to the sufferings of the Kashmiri people.”
“They were subjected to a prolonged economic blockade; their lives and properties were attacked. Many Kashmiris were martyred, including Sheikh Abdul Aziz, a prominent Hurriyat leader,” Gilani said, adding these events reflected the indigenous struggle of the Kashmiris for independence."
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