Kashmiris are separatists for they are being
treated differently, Omar Abdullah
AHMED
ALI FAYYAZ
Visibly angry and upset over the way
different political parties have dealt with the riot-hit Kishtwar, Jammu and
Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Thursday that the Kashmiris were
being forced to feel themselves separate from the Indian mainstream.
In an unusually harsh
Independence Day ceremonial address at Bakhshi Stadium, Mr Abdullah expressed
his dismay over the treatment meted out to his State by the Indian mainstream
political parties. While as the parties like BJP are spearheading an agitation
with various accusations, insinuations and demands, political outfits like
Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party [BSP] have demanded dismissal of the Omar
Abdullah-led coalition government over the communal riots in Kishtwar town.
“I was often being asked
why the Kashmiris had separatist inclinations. A many times, I asked myself but
didn’t get an answer. After [the riots in] Kishtwar, I have now got an answer.
We are different [from them] as they treat us differently”, Mr Abdullah said in
his speech after hoisting the national flag and taking salute from different
contingents of J&K Police and armed forces.
The complaining Chief
Minister referred to a number of communal and other riots in different Indian
States in the last several years --- including Gujarat, Bihar, UP, West Bengal
--- and asked: “Which of those States had forced them to rush the national
level leaders next day?” He asserted that none of those riots had led to a
national level debate in the Parliament. Mr Abdullah was unusually categorical
in his impression that the Kashmiris were feeling themselves “separate” as they
were being treated “separately and differently”.
The I-Day ceremonial
parades progressed smoothly amid tight security arrangements in all the 20
districts in Kashmir and Jammu provinces. Rains were the only spoilsport as
school children and cultural groups could not participate and perform at
certain places. Curfew, which had been imposed in apprehension of the spillover
of trouble after the violent riots in Kishtwar on August 9th, was lifted
overnight from all the district headquarters and major towns in Jammu.
However, there was no
relaxation in Kishtwar where Minister of Law Mir Saifullah unfurled the
Tricolour and took salute at an official function. Army has been in control of
the situation along with J&K Police in Kishtwar district since August 9th.
Shutdown
in Valley
As a routine feature
since the outbreak of separatist militancy in 1990, entire Kashmir valley
observed shutdown over different calls from the separatist and militant
outfits. Senior leaders of the both factions of Hurriyat Conference, including
Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, besides Yasin Malik of Jammu and
Kashmir Liberation Front and Shabir Shah of Democratic Freedom Party had called
upon the Kashmiris to observe “Black Day” to register what they called the
Kashmiris’ protest against the Indian military occupation.
Transport and business
establishments did not operate due to these calls for shutdown coupled with the
heavy security bandobust and undeclared restrictions on the movement of
traffic. Even the people carrying special passes and going to participate in
the I-Day ceremonies at several places complained that they were tersely sent
back by the Police and paramilitary forces.
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