Govt raising false alarms on recurrence of unrest: Geelani

Srinagar: Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman, Syed Ali Shah Geelani Saturday alleged that the government, through arrests of pro-freedom leaders and youth, was raising false alarms about the repetition of last year’s summer unrest.

“3900 people have been arrested already, and in order to justify this “jail bharo” movement, the government is creating false apprehensions of a 2010 like unrest taking place again this year,” Geelani said in a tele-statement from New Delhi.

Geelani also termed Kashmir interlocutor, Radha Kumar’s statement about youth being released on the interlocutors’ recommendation a “crude joke.”

“To crush the freedom movement of Kashmiris, New Delhi and the state administration have designed a conspiracy under which not only pro-freedom leaders are to be detained in jails for longer periods but any Kashmiri who dares walk with his head held high would be jailed,” he said.

Geelani said the government was justifying the “pre-emptive massive arrests of youth and pro-freedom leaders” on the flimsy pretext of the situation taking a violent turn this summer too.  “There are two reasons for this evil-designed policy: New Delhi’s traditional stubbornness towards resolving the Kashmir issue and the National Conference’s policy of political vendetta.”

Geelani alleged that the police had tuned the arrest of youth into “a profitable business.”, saying  SHOs ” are taking full advantage of this arrest policy and lakhs of rupees are being extorted from  helpless parents against the release their children, part of which goes to the police.”

He said those police officers who refuse to be part of “this ransom business” are transferred to other departments.

“Unfortunately, New Delhi fails to understand that this repressive policy may pro-long the sufferings of Kashmiri people but won’t undermine their will and resolve for freedom. They think that like Sheikh Abdullah, they can keep pro-freedom leaders in jails and then get them to compromise. But times have changed. Today, this freedom movement is not dependent on a few leaders, but the entire Kashmiri nation is safeguarding it. They will not allow anybody to repeat the mistake of 1975.”

Geelani also took a dig at ruling National Conference, saying the pro-India party was trying to prove more loyal than the king.