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Former CM calls for release of Kashmiri prisoners

By Fayaz Wani

Srinagar, Aug 30: The pro-Indian Kashmiri leader and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayed Sunday demanded the release of Kashmiri prisoners.

He said Kashmir had suffered a great deal through unfair treatment by others and confused and often self defeating response by local leadership leading us into a state of perpetual conflict that has eaten up generations. "We hurtled from political uncertainty to militancy but issues that faced us as a people got complicated rather than nearing any solution," he said and added successive generations have had to pay a heavy price for this continued disturbance."

Mufti said revocation of the draconian AFSPA and withdrawal of troops from civilian areas was essential to move on the resolution course. "It is the essence of my political experience that Kashmir can never reconcile to strong arm methods or subversion of democratic norms", he said and added the sooner we understand this basic truth the better it would be for the state and the South Asia.

Calling for an immediate release of political prisoners, the former chief minister said jail was not the battle ground in a democratic system. "How long and how many will the government arrest for political beliefs? He said he had always believed the battle of ideas has to be fought on ideological plane and had practiced that between 2002 and 2006, with dramatic effect on the situation.

Fayaz Wani reports on life in Srinagar, Kashmir.