Joint Separatist Leadership warn Govt, call for shutdown on Aug 12

The joint separatist leadership comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik on Monday called for Kashmir-wide shutdown on August 12 against the “ongoing genocide of Kashmiris, onslaught on common people and attempts to change the state subject law in Jammu and Kashmir.”
In a joint statement here, the leaders said: “People of Kashmir will observe a complete shutdown on Saturday (12 August 2017) and register their protest against these anti-Muslim and anti-Kashmir actions.”

They said the ongoing “killing spree, genocide of young Kashmiris, hooliganism of government forces in entire Kashmir (especially South) and the National Investigation Agency or Enforcement Directorate raids to divert attention of people in India and international community from these atrocities and ploys to change hundreds of years old state subject law in Jammu and Kashmir will face a stern resistance from Kashmiris.”
“For the last many months, Kashmir has been turned into a killing field and massacre of young unarmed Kashmiris has become the order of the day. Our young ones are killed with impunity and the trigger-happy forces, disrespecting every bit of humanity, are seen mutilating their bodies, disrespecting even the deceased and taking selfies with the bodies. On the one hand, this genocide is going on and on the other, Indian forces have unleashed a new era of beatings, vandalising properties, making arrests and torturing common people without any consideration to age and gender. Nocturnal raids, putting men, women, young and old in jails under black laws and beating men and women have become a routine in whole Kashmir including Islamabad (Anantnag), Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam, Bijbihara, Pampore and other areas,” the leaders said.
“To divert attention from these atrocities and ongoing massacre and genocide, the rulers in India and their Kashmiri stooges have started NIA and ED raids against leaders and even their kith and kin are being arrested or summoned and intimidated and a vicious defamation campaign and media trail are also going on against them,” the three leaders said.

They said: “Today propaganda is going on that our young ones, who, after being pushed to the wall, are rendering valuable sacrifices, are doing so for petty amounts. It is said that our young boys who bear pellets and bullets resist only for some hundred rupees and also that our students on whom parents spend thousands are supporting resistance for 200 rupees. Moreover a vicious defamation campaign to malign leadership is also going on in Indian media especially TV channels.”
“All is being done by Indian rulers with the active support of Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP and other pro-India politicians. Same Mehbooba Mufti used to visit the bereaved families of martyrs especially in south Kashmir and shed tears but after she assumed power she has become most brutal and defeated all previous records of oppression and tyranny,” they alleged.
Terming as unacceptable and condemnable the “ploy of Indian rulers and their Kashmiri stooges” to “wipe out” state subject law in Jammu Kashmir, the leaders said: “This law has been implemented by erstwhile Maharaja in Jammu and Kashmir. This kind of law is implemented in places that comprise forests, glaciers and water bodies and Jammu and Kashmir being such a land needed a protection regarding ecological balance which was provided by this law.”
They said, “By eradicating this law, the Indian rulers backed by RSS want to fulfill their old dream of changing Muslim majority into a minority in Kashmir and hence change the demography of this land like Israel has done in Palestine. Pro-India politicians of Jammu and Kashmir are equally responsible for these anti-Muslim and anti-Kashmir plots.”
Urging people of Jammu and Kashmir to remain vigilant against these “conspiratorial plots”, the leaders said: “If these plots are not stopped we will be forced to call people of Kashmir to come on roads in protest.”