By News Agency of Kashmir
Srinagar : Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Patron, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has said the latest statement of the Union Defense Minister, A K Antony reflects an approach of objectivity and cooperation on the PDP’s demand for reduction of troops and scrapping of the Special Laws.
Addressing an impressive gathering of the party workers from Ganderbal at his residence here this morning, Sayeed while welcoming the Defense Minister’s announcement to vacate all the civilian properties under use of the security forces by November 30 hoped that this would be a prelude to measures of wider implication on rationalizing the troop concentration for internal security duties in the State. He said the vacation of civilian properties would only mark the beginning of a larger public and institutional empowerment process which the PDP has been projecting for quite some time.
Sayeed said the popular sentiment on the continued presence of heavy troop-deployment in civilian areas will have to be respected fully. “The mechanism put in place by the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh after March 2007 discussions, is an acknowledgment of the seriousness of this problem,” he said and expressed the hope that the sentiments of the people would be configured in any decision on the issue. He said people are the ultimate defenders of their land and interest and their views and voices can’t be subservient to any other consideration.
The PDP Patron said shortest and the most workable route to eliminating human rights abuse is reconciling the presence of troops to actual security requirements and any such move should not be hampered by fossilized mindsets and imaginary apprehensions. He said the latest announcement by the Defense Minister should provide the lead to those quarters, both within and outside the State, who have been speaking out of turn on this very sensitive issue.
Paying tributes to the political wisdom of the people of Ganderbal, Sayeed said the revolution of 2002 that resulted in political empowerment of the people in actual terms as a result of transparent elections could not have taken off, but for the lead provided by them. He said the bold and courageous decision of the Ganderbal electorate had opened the larger Kashmir issue to new possibilities and impacted it as few other electoral verdicts had. “It was only after the Ganderbal debacle of the then ruling party that perceptible progress on resolving Kashmir issue could be made and the process was spearheaded by the elected representatives of the people,” he said.
Sayeed said his party’s guiding principle is its agenda of ensuring political empowerment, economic emancipation and social upliftment of the people of Jammu & Kashmir. “We would continue our struggle for shaping up a peaceful, dignified and prosperous future for our people, the foundations for which were laid in 2002,” he said.