*Protests have become business for some organizations
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, July 31: In a first direct attack on separatists during over three-week long turmoil in Kashmir, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said the people whose children were studying abroad were instigating other children to violence and charged that “many forces have joined hands to vitiate atmosphere in the Valley”.
Her statement on the separatists assumed significance as various other political parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the coalition partner of the PDP, had been more vocal in targeting the separatists for pushing the youth into violence while their own children were enjoying “lavish lives” abroad or working in the Government services here.
“People whose children are studying abroad were instigating other children to violence,” she said in an interview given to a national electronic news channel this morning as she made fervent appeal for restoration of peace in Kashmir with call to the people to rein-in their children and don’t allow them to join protests.
Nearly 50 people have been killed and over 5000 others injured in the violence during past three weeks, which broke out after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani in Kokernag on July 8.
Without naming any political party, separatists or militants, Mehbooba said: “many forces have come together to vitiate the atmosphere” in the Valley, which, otherwise, was peaceful.
“This has become their business,” the Chief Minister said but didn’t name any organization.
She went on to say that these organizations were spending money (on the protests), sending children from one area to another to create trouble and deliberately diverting them (the children) to lead protests towards police stations and security forces camps as they know there will be retaliation and these “innocent children” will get trapped and either killed or injured.
She said it has been witnessed that only common people (including the youth) were getting killed while the instigators were running away, which was the strategy of trouble creators, who want to keep the pot boiled for their vested interests.
Calling for saving the future of upcoming generation, Mehbooba Mufti said the children born in Kashmir during past 15 years have seen nothing but violence and “we can’t put them to more violence. This entire generation has to be saved for which violence must end”.
Asserting that these children were being used to create unrest on the streets, she made fresh appeal for peace, on the name of children saying their future and career were both at stake.
A large number of teenagers and youth were among those dead and injured with some of them set to lose their vision after being hits by the pellet guns, which were being used by the para-military personnel to quell the protests.
Coming down heavily on three-week long protests, in which the protesters have targeted Government property including police stations and offices etc and burnt some of them, Mehbooba Mufti said those indulging in such kind of violence including destroying the property were doing no good as it may take several years to rebuild the property, which has been burnt or extensively damaged during the protests.
“They are attacking police stations, camps, court complexes, Government offices and buildings and destroying everything. This is nothing but the loss of public and the State Government. We will have to reconstruct it again, which will need lot of resources and time,” the Chief Minister said.
Describing those indulging in damage to official property as “agents of destruction,” Mehbooba Mufti said the violence would bring no results.
She reiterated her father late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s statement that “guns and grenades never solved anything”.
Mehbooba, who had taken over as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on April 4 this year as the head of PDP-BJP coalition Government after the death of her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on January 7, said: “dialogue is the only solution to all problems as guns and grenades have never solve anything”.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
