Strike eye-opener for India: Geelani

Srinagar: Terming the “complete shutdown” observed by the people today as an eye-opener for New Delhi, Chairman Hurriyat Conference (G), and Syed Ali Shah Geelani has asked India to shun its “rigid” stand on Jammu and Kashmir and allow the people of the state the right to decide their future.

“The strike observed by people on October 27, the day Indian troops landed in Kashmir in 1947, is a clear message that India’s illegal military occupation of Kashmir is not acceptable to Kashmiris. Therefore the policy makers in New Delhi should realize that Indian occupation remains as unpopular today as it was on October 27, 1947. The Indian government must realize that after 63-years of oppression and torture India hasn’t been able to break the resolve of the Kashmiri people for freedom,” Geelani said in a statement issued here on Wednesday.

Instead, Geelani said, a new generation of Kashmiris today has “emerged as a volcano against the Indian occupation, ready to explode if its aspirations are not met.”

Geelani also appealed Kashmiris to remain steadfast “at this critical juncture in the freedom movement.” “ The international community and even the people of India are beginning to feel the pain of Kashmiris. At this decisive moment, we must not show any signs of weakness. We must be ready to sacrifice for the bigger cause,” he said.

Saying that the freedom movement had suffered several setbacks in the past due to external and internal ‘treacheries’, Geelani said the ongoing resistance movement would continue according to a well-planned strategy till its logical end. “We won’t allow this to happen again and there would be no changes in the resistance programme until India accepts the disputed nature of Kashmir and the last Indian soldier leaves Kashmir. The movement can’t be allowed to be affected by an ‘abortion’ now,” he said.

Terming New Delhi’s appointment of interlocutors for Kashmir and “their mission” as a “joke”, Geelani ridiculed the interlocutors’ statement that they were here to listen to the viewpoint of people. “Don’t they and the Indian government understand the meaning of Azadi?  Are not the events of past four months enough to understand the reality? New Delhi is only embarrassing itself by overlooking the facts in a manner akin to terming night as day and day as night,” the veteran leader said.