Indian bid to change IOK demography ‘unacceptable’

ISLAMABAD: The Hurriyat forum led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has said Indian attempts at demographic engineering are completely unacceptable to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

According to the Kashmir Media Service, the forum issued a statement in Srinagar on Thursday, saying: “Since 1947 there have been attempts to change the demographic character of Jammu and Kashmir and in August 2019 a final nail in the coffin was hammered in this regard. These attempts at demographic engineering are completely unacceptable to the people of Jammu and Kashmir who have totally rejected it.”

It said executive members of the forum—Professor Abdul Ghani Butt and Bilal Ghani Lone—called on the ailing executive member of the amalgam, Maulana Abbas Ansari, at his residence in Srinagar and enquired after his health and later held a meeting there.

Another executive member, Masroor Abbas Ansari, also participated in the meeting while the forum Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, could not attend as he continued to be under arbitrary house arrest since August 2019, it added.

According to the statement, the forum members at the meeting said the Indian government should stop issuing domicile certificates to outsiders with the view to change the demographic character of occupied Kashmir, which was causing great concern among the Kashmiri people and could have serious consequences for the region. They advised the Kashmiris to be very vigilant at this time and not sell their land or any property to outsiders at any cost.

They reiterated the forum’s basic stand that the dispute of Jammu and Kashmir had to be resolved peacefully as per the Kashmiris’ wishes and aspirations through dialogue among the three stakeholders — India, Pakistan and the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

They said dialogue among the three stakeholders was the best method to resolve the issue that the Hurriyat leadership had consistently advocated and even made participation.

“The resolution of the Kashmir dispute is the best guarantee of real peace and subsequent prosperity in South Asia,” they said, adding they would continue to pursue persistently for peaceful resolution of the lingering dispute.

The leaders also condemned the brutal killing of a civilian by Indian troops during a cordon and search operation in Sopore, saying the images of a three-year-old child crying at his slain grandfather’s body were heart wrenching.