Separatists call for twoday strike over Art 35A hearing
UNREST GOES ON Threaten mass agitation if article is abolished, NGO has filed appeal in SC
SRINAGAR: As the Supreme Court is set to hear the case pertaining to the petitions filed against Article 35A on August 27, the separatist leaders have called for a twoday strike in Kashmir from August 26, and threatened to launch mass agitation and street protests if the article is abolished.
The case pertains to hearing a petition, filed by a non-government organisation, which questions the validity of Article 35A that gives Jammu and Kashmir legislature the right to define permanent residents of the state.
In a statement issued by the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik, had called for a complete shutdown and protests in Kashmir on August 26 and 27.
“If any adverse decision comes from the Supreme Court of India on August 27, a mass agitation will be launched forthwith. People are mentally and physically ready to hit the streets and leadership is also geared up to protest and defend it at every cost as it is a matter of our very existence,” said Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
He further called for mobilisation at all levels to launch a mass agitation with full force. “Every person has to play a role...,” he said.
J&K governor Narendra Nath Vohra had, in a letter addressed to the home minister, sought deferment of the case till the state has a political government.
However, a source said, the governor’s letter has displeased a few leaders at the Centre.
Meanwhile, separatist leaders, along with the leaders of almost all the mainstream parties, have come together against the case. Besides, civil society groups, trade bodies and lawyers, too, have warned of mass agitation in Kashmir if Article 35A is abolished.
Former J&K chief minister and president of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mehbooba Mufti, has asked former deputy chief minister Muzzuffar Hussain Baig and former law minister Abdul Haq Khan attend the hearings in the Supreme Court and chalk out a strategy to defend the Article 35A, a PDP leader said.
Earlier, Mufti had asked mainstream parties and separatists to join forces to safeguard the Article 35A.
PM MUST SAFEGUARD 35A: TRADERS
Srinagar: The business community in Kashmir said on Saturday that it was incumbent upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to safeguard Article 35A of the Constitution if he was honest in his “deeds and words” to embrace the people of the Valley.
The community said Modi should either get the petitions challenging Article 35A in the top court withdrawn by the petitioners or to defend the provision by pleading for dismissal of the case.
“It is an irony that Indian PM, who swore of Kashmiriyat from the ramparts of Red Fort only a few days ago, is attempting a judicial onslaught on the same Kashmiriyat with the intention to change its demography for larger insidious political agenda,” Abdul Majeed Zargar, spokesman of the joint forum of 27 organisations, told reporters.
Modi, during his Independence Day speech, had said the Centre will move forward in Jammu and Kashmir by adopting an approach of embracing all and not by ‘goli and gaali’ (bullet and abuse).
He said his government will move ahead in the state by following the path of ‘Insaaniyat, Kashmiriyat and Jamhuriyat’ as shown by late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.