Accession fraud of 20th century: Geelani

Srinagar: Hitting out at senior Congress leader Makhan Lal Fotedar for his accession remarks, Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman, Syed Ali Shah Geelani Tuesday said Jammu and Kashmir’s accession with India was the “biggest fraud and lie of 20th century.”
“Describing J&K’s accession with India as final is like denying the existence of sun during broad daylight,” Geelani said while addressing public gatherings in different areas of Kulgam district.
Geelani accused India of “looting” Kashmir’s water and other natural resources. He also welcomed the recent statement’s pf OIC and EU, saying “ our peaceful struggle has made the international community realize that India’s occupation of Kashmir  is illegal and morally unjustified and Kashmiris’ freedom movement is a people’s movement.”
“ the so-called accession is the biggest lie and fraud of South Asian politics in 20th century , and it has no legal or moral standing because neither Maharaja Hari Singh nor Sheikh Mohammad Abdullh had any mandate to decide the future of lakhs of people without asking them their opinion,” he saids.
Geelani said unemployment and all other “problems here are due to India’s occupation and despite Jammu and Kashmir being rich in natural and water resources, the benefit of these resources goes to India.”
He warned New Delhi that it cannot “sustain the military occupation of Kashmir by force for too long and neither can this dispute be resolved through war in this age of atomic bombs.”
“If Kashmir is yet to be resolved through peaceful dialogue it is India and its integral-part stubbornness which is to be blamed.”