Kupwara, Feb 16: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said People Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) represents aspirations of the people of J&K and it will run as long as people want it.
“People of Jammu and Kashmir want this alliance to work and it will work as long as people of Kashmir want it to run,” she said.
The former chief minister said her party was not merely demanding statehood but the restoration of pre-August 2019 status for Jammu and Kashmir.
She also called for resumption of dialogue for the resolution of the Kashmir issue with Pakistan and alleged that there was “jungle raj” in the country.
She also urged the party cardre to put up a spirited struggle for restoration of constitutional rights of the erstwhile state that were taken away “illegally and unconstitutionally on August 5, 2019.”
“We are not demanding statehood. We are demanding the pre-August 5, 2019 position of J&K and we also want the Kashmir issue, for which thousands of youth have rendered sacrifices, lakhs of homes have been destroyed and losses in millions of rupees have been suffered, to be resolved by talking to Pakistan and the people of J&K,” she said.
Talking to reporters after the party’s convention in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, she said people were being arrested first and then their crime was being proven.
“There is a saying that show me a person, I will show you the crime, which means that first they arrest a person, then they prove the crime. Many of our leaders are in custody and they have been shown no orders and there is nothing against them,” she said and demanded release of all the political prisoners and youths, including former MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid from Langate.
“There is complete jungle raj here right now. The jungle raj is happening across the country also now,” she said.
Earlier addressing the first district level workers convention of the party after her release in the border district of Kupwara, Mehbooba asserted that PDP would use all peaceful, democratic and constitutionally accepted means to fight for restoration of special status & resolution of the issue of j&K underlining that the violent means have never yielded any good.
“We were robbed of our legitimate rights by means of a constitutional fraud and we would fight for their restoration by all peaceful and acceptable means. And in our struggle, we should not lose sight of the fact that not only have violent means not delivered ever but have even delegitimize the struggles that by peaceful means were all genuine and legitimate,” Mehbooba said.
Reminding those trying to create a false equivalence of J&K with other states in the union of India, Mehbooba underlined that J&K had not merged but acceded to India with a promised special constitutional status.
“Ours was a special case where in a Muslim majority state acceded to a secular India and not merged with it subject to certain guarantees including a special constitutional status. But New Delhi trampled upon the very special status that formed the foundation of this accession. This was not only illegal and unconstitutional but unethical as well. But we are not ready to accept and normalize this betrayal. We would continue to fight till our rights are restored,” She said.
On the occasion, she also underlined that while the fight for restoration of constitutional rights has gained immediacy, there is no room to lose sight of the larger picture wherein the people of J&K are to be brought out of “miseries by resolving the larger political issue of J&K through Dialogue and reconciliation and make J&K a bridge of peace in south Asia.”
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