Rampant Strike Calls Violation of Right to Life: Engineer Hilal War

Srinagar, Dec 09: People’s Political Party Chairman, Engineer Hilal Ahmed War, has appealed the resistance leadership to refrain from giving frequent strike calls as it amounts to “violation of human rights.” Speaking at a human rights seminar organized by APHC, War said that regular strikes have crippled the economy of the Kashmiris, which can prove gravely detrimental to the movement in the long run.
“Kashmir is the only place in the world where human rights are in detention. The Valley has been turned into human rights graveyard by the occupational forces of India ,” said Er. War.
“Kashmir is a human issue,” said War, “because human rights and self determination right are intertwined like body and soul according to human charter. Therefore Kashmir problem is clearly a human problem dressed in political clothing because of the role of India and Pakistan as parties to the dispute.”
War said religion and Kashmir issue shouldn’t be mixed up because it is a politico-human issue. “We shouldn’t bring religion into it and some of our senior leaders who try to colour our movement communal are doing a great damage to it,” he said.
While throwing light on Article 3 of Universal Declaration of Human rights and Article 6 of International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, War said both these articles say everyone has a right to life.
“Right to life comprises of right to live with dignity and honour, right to education, right to expression, right to freedom of privacy, right to earn livelihood, right to self-determination,” said Er. War adding, “When we thrust hartals on people, we deprive them, knowingly or unknowingly, of earning a livelihood which tantamount to the violation of right to life.”

War impressed upon the leadership to formulate a concrete strategy as an alternative to strikes which have yielded nothing except pushing people further away from the movement.
“When people are deprived of their basic needs, while the leadership has an affluent lifestyle, it doesn’t do any good to the movement. It is a serious issue and should be addressed at the earliest,” said Er. War.