KASHMIRIS YEARN FOR AZADI: NC MP, REPORTED BY ABID BASHIR
‘Feel Sorry For Omar’s Helplessness’
Srinagar, Feb 21: In a significant development, National Conference MP from South Kashmir, Ghulam Nabi Rattanpuri Thursday handed over a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that states “if Kashmiris would be given a chance to decide their fate, they would opt for Azadi (Freedom).”Rattanpuri met Prime Minister during the joint session of Parliament in New Delhi addressed by President Pranab Mukherjee. He was carrying placards displaying slogans like ‘remains of Muhammad Maqbool Bhat and Muhammad Afzal Guru should be returned to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for proper burial.’
Talking to Greater Kashmir over phone from New Delhi, Rattanpuri said earlier he had thought of writing a letter to President of India but later he changed his mind and wrote to the Prime Minister. “I did not talk to the Prime Minister. I just handed over my letter to him,” the NC MP said. He said since every Kashmiri can’t become a MP, he “listened to his conscience” and decided to raise his voice in the highest forum of world’s best democracy against the ‘unjustified and undemocratic’ hanging of Guru.“My ultimate aim is that world’s best democracy should show a bigger heart and hand over the mortal remains of Maqbool and Guru,” the NC MP said.
The letter Rattanpuri has written states that the fact can’t be ignored that “given a chance, Kashmiris will opt for Azadi (Freedom).” “A minority believes that our future may be safer in a secular democratic India. This minority strives to motivate the rest of the compatriots to join them in securing our Azadi within the framework of the Constitution of India,” the letter states.
It further states that the majority of people in J&K and many lawyers, human rights activists and ordinary citizens from rest of India have been agitating for the last 11 years over the fact that Guru did not get a fair trial.
“It has also been pointed out that no proper cross examination of the witnesses took place and the judgment was based on circumstantial evidence only,” the letter reads. “Many in the country and majority in J&K perceive that Guru was hanged to appease public opinion in India in a bid to neutralize Moditva.”
The MP has further stated that not only the people of J&K, but many eminent personalities in rest of the world believe that Guru was made a “scapegoat.”
“Government of India denied Guru and his family the opportunity of judicial review of the rejection of mercy petition. The information available to us suggests that Guru was informed about his hanging just a few hours before his death,” reads the letter.“We perceive it (Guru’s hanging) as another instance of differential, callous and insensitive attitude. The killers of late Rajiv Gandhi, and many other convicts who were ahead of Guru in the death row, have received a preferential treatment.”
The MP further states: “How do you expect us to explain to the youth of J&K the denial of judicial review of mercy petition and the least humanitarian courtesies to Guru and his family? I, as a citizen of India, feel that with the hanging of Guru a nation’s head also hangs in shame. I feel sorry for my Chief Minister (Omar Abdullah) who finds no option, but to express his helplessness in securing the basic human rights of his people.”Rattanpuri has also stated that “If I don’t raise this issue with all the commitment and strength, I shall be betraying my people and my party that has been espousing autonomy.”
The MP’s letter further states: “I fail to understand how the Union Home Minister can take decisions on the matters falling entirely under the jurisdiction of the State government and without having any regard for the opinion of the concerned Chief Minister. Is this the special status we boast of?”On the return of Guru’s body, the letter reads that if the government of J&K has no problem in receiving the body of Guru as it has recommended his burial according to the wishes of his family, why should Government of India deny it. “A last glance at the body and a burial at the native place may act as a small gesture and healing touch to the family. That may also assuage the feelings of the agitating public at large,” the letter says.
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2013/Feb/22/kashmiris-yearn-for-azadi-nc-mp-67.asp
No comments:
Post a Comment