‘Salahuddin a freedom fighter’
Move to impose sanctions regrettable, say separatist leaders
In their first reaction to the US state department declaring Hizb-ul-Mujahideen chief Muhammad Yusuf Shah, alias Syed Salahuddin, a “speciallydesignated global terrorist’ and imposing sanctions on him, an alliance of key Kashmiri separatist leaders said the move is “highly unjustifiable and regrettable”.
While the ruling PDP, like other mainstream Kashmiri political parties, is maintaining silence over the US move for obvious reason, its coalition partner BJP has welcomed it, saying it should serve as an “eye-opener” to separatists and gun-yielding youth of the Valley.
Separatist leaders — Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik — said that J&K is a “disputed territory which was occupied by Indian illegally in 1947.”
“Since the people of the state are peacefully engaged in their struggle for freedom through selfdetermination as promised to them by UN and supported by the US, the UK and the rest of the world community (sic),” they said.
The leadership said that declaring “a Kashmiri freedom fighter” as terrorist will not resolve the Kashmir dispute or bring peace. “What it can, however, do is to embolden the Indian government to further suppress Kashmiris and further increase the level of human rights violations being committed against them by Indian armed forces.”
Another prominent separatist leader Shabir Ahmed Shah said the US move “won’t have an iota of negative effect on the Kashmir’s freedom struggle”.
“By including Syed Salahuddin in the list of global terrorists, the US has found one more customer of its arms in India,” he said.