Yasin Malik warns of fresh armed ‘rebellion’

‘Kashmiris Facing Worst Ever Persecution’

Srinagar, Mar 10: Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik Sunday warned that denial of political space to people of Kashmir, especially youth, can lead to eruption of “more ferocious armed rebellion” than the one witnessed early during 90’s. He said Kashmiri youth are being persecuted today more atrociously that what was done in 90’s.  Malik was put under house arrest at his Maisuma residence, soon after he landed at the Srinagar Airport from New Delhi. The JKLF chief had gone to Pakistan on a private visit, where he landed in a major controversy after Jamaat-ud-Dawaa chief Hafiz Muhammad Sayeed shared dais with him during Malik’s hunger strike against secret execution of Muhammad Afzal Guru.

                Talking to Greater Kashmir at his Maisuma residence, Malik said a simmering discontent is brewing in Kashmir against the “worst ever atrocities” being committed by the forces on the youth. “People, especially youth, are being subjected to worst ever torture than we faced in 1987. The space for the transition to peaceful struggle here seems to be choking,” he said. “In 1987, New Delhi had claimed that they were unaware of Kashmir situation. But this time around, Government of India is fully aware of the happenings and the sentiment. If the treatment meted out to the youth continues, I am afraid, the generation next won’t listen to anybody and we may witness a worst and more dangerous armed resistance.” He said people of Kashmir should follow the programs announced by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Mushawarat (MMM), a united front of separatists. “If separatists start announcing separate programs, there will be confusion. So, MMM programs should be followed,” Malik said.

ON GURU’S EXECUTION:

 “I believe Guru’s execution is a judicial murder and the murder of democracy. The judge who announced death penalty to Guru has stated that he (Guru) was not part of the conspiracy. My question to the Government of India is whose collective conscience have they satisfied? ,” JKLF chief said.  Malik said in 2006, there was a unanimous consensus at the “national level” that Guru should not be hanged. To a query whether extremist forces were emerging in India and acting as a pressure group, Malik said: “That’s what I want to ask New Delhi as to whose collective conscience they have satisfied?”   “But they (UPA Government) still went ahead and murdered Guru by executing him in Tihar jail. They have repeated the mistake of 1984, when JKLF founder Muhammad Maqbool was hanged,” he said. He said it seems by hanging Guru, the Government of India has satisfied the “collective conscience” of those who killed “their father of nation—Mahatma Gandhi and those who were involved in Gujarat riots, where pregnant women were killed let alone children.”

ON HIS MANHANDLING AT NEW DELHI AIRPORT:

 “I saw open vulgarity at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. The Hindu fanatics attacked me and even kicked my luggage. I was denied entry in almost 50 hotels and later I stayed for a night with Prof SAR Geelani,” he said.

ABOUT HAFIZ MUHAMMAD SAYEED CONTROVERSY:

 The JKLF chief said when he heard about the secret hanging of Guru, he decided to go for 24-hour-long hunger strike in Islamabad, Pakistan. “Hunger strike means to punish human body. At the same time, it has a universal message. Thousands of people walked in and shared the dais and Hafiz Sayeed was one among them. I didn’t invite him,” he said. “Soon after that I was forced to face media trial and threatened. But I maintained that jail was my second home.”  He said his passport has already expired and he has been “indirectly conveyed” that he won’t be allowed to visit Pakistan again. “Similarly, my wife and year-old daughter had applied for visa, they too, were denied. I tried to search on the internet with the names of my wife and daughter, but I found no details about their visa,” Malik said. The JKLF chief condemned the killing of a youth allegedly by the army at Baramulla. “It is because of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), that army and other forces have gone trigger-happy in Kashmir,” he said.     

Source: http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2013/Mar/11/yasin-malik-warns-of-fresh-armed-rebellion--40.asp