Srinagar: Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani Friday termed the recommendations by Indian Parliamentary Committee in favour of Western Pakistan refugees in Jammu and Kashmir as “an attack on the special status of Jammu & Kashmir and a conspiracy to change the demographic position of the state”.
In a statement issued from New Delhi, Chairman Hurriyat (G) Syed Ali Geelani cautioned that if the government tries to accept these recommendations then it will be resisted tooth and nail and a strong amovement will be launched against it.
He said that there are about 5 lakh West Pakistan refugees and issuing state subjects in their favour and giving voting rights to them will be equal to the ‘uprooting’ of the constitution of the state and it will create serious crisis in the Jammu & Kashmir.
He said that the government of India have actively started to work over the ‘hidden’ agenda of RSS and with the help of the state power, they have kick started a dangerous plan to “convert the Muslim majority of Jammu & Kashmir into the minorities”.
Geelani, who is in New Delhi for a medical check up, said that as far as the people of ‘Azad’ Kashmir-who have crossed the cease fire line to this side-are concerned, they are legally permanent residents of Jammu & Kashmir and no one is against their permanent settlement here. “But the refugees who have come from the West Pakistan are in no way the residents of Jammu & Kashmir but they are legally the permanent residents of India and they will be never and at any cost be allowed to become the permanent residents of Jammu & Kashmir.”
The octogenarian pro-freedom leader of Kashmir said that the issue of permanently settlement of West Pakistan refugees in the state is linked with the constitution of the state and the recommendations of the Indian parliamentary committee are a direct “attack over the constitution of the state and it also puts a big question mark over the intention and the status of the committee”.
Hurriyat chairman alleged, “from the partition till date more than 15 lakh Kashmiris have migrated to other side of the cease fire line and West Pakistan and the communal people back here have illegally occupied their lands and properties.”
“Till now, there return has never been discussed and neither has been their properties vacated from the illegal occupation. Contrary to that recommendations for the permanent settlement of West Pakistan refugees in the Jammu & Kashmir who have more right to become the permanent residents of India, is part of a plan which has been formulated to change the demography and the disputed nature of the state,” he said.
Ailing Geelani further said that the parliamentary committee has made “irresponsible” recommendations over a most sensitive issue and these recommendations are “against the will and aspirations of the people of Kashmir”.
“Jammu & Kashmir is not Uttar Pradesh or Gujarat like state of India but it is internationally accepted disputed territory in the world and there is no constitutional or moral justification of its military occupation. The ruling party of India should very much understand that the steps out of haste can put the state on the fire and it will further in-stabilize the instable political environment of the state,” Geelani warned.
