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Freedom Sentiment Can't Be Curbed By Force: Kashmiri Leader

By Fayaz Wani

Srinagar, Aug 26: The pro-Indian Kashmiri woman leader, Mehbooba Mufti Wednesday said that the freedom sentiments cannot be curbed by force.

Speaking in a Kashmir assembly, Mehbooba, who is a lawmaker said, "Freedom sentiment could not be tackled without understanding its genesis and responding to it with an alternative. Sixty two years of our suffering should be enough for us to raise the level of debate on Kashmir from petty partisan bickering to an informed joint effort to come out of the nightmarish survival and lead our coming generations to a dignified and meaningful life".

She said, "It is for the political leadership in Kashmir to put its act together and convey our feelings to New Delhi on issues "on which we all agree". "My party offers its unqualified support to any such initiative, be it on matters of immediate significance or long term resolution paradigm".

Mehbooba recounted how Indian government through a series of acts had shaken the confidence of people of the state which fed alienation among them leading to demands of plebiscite or Azadi with only variation of expressions. "This sentiment cannot be erased either by denial of justice or efforts to compensate it with controlled democracy but by an alternative road map which she said her party's Self Rule vision enshrined".

Recounting the unabated incidents of gross human rights abuse Mehbooba said continued denial of justice to the victims had turned the state into a virtual Guantanamo of Indian legal and political landscape. She pointed out as to how all institutions ranging from the police station to the highest judicial forum of the country had been unable to protect the dignity, life and honor of the residents of Kashmir, even though the constitution should provide us safeguards that are available to all citizens of the country uniformly.

Lamenting the plight of the state youth and their vulnerability to suspicion by the Indian security agencies Mehbooba said they were arrested in and outside the state on flimsy or no grounds merely for their name. "Nobody ever knows what happens to these unfortunate young men. People are denied passports as a rule as much as their counterparts in rest of Indian get them as a fundamental right".

Referring to the role of police, Mehbooba recalled how this institution meant for crime control and law and order had been misused in the past and continued to be so.

Calling for immediate roll back of AFSPA and withdrawal of extra troops from civilian areas, Mehbooba said "each of us here in the house should ponder as to what our legacy for the coming generations should be". "Are we leaving behind garrisons where civilians also survive or a proud civil society in which armed forces come to its aid when called, as happens in any free and democratic society", she asked.

Fayaz Wani reports on life in Srinagar, Kashmir.