By IANS,
Srinagar : Even though the interlocutors’ report on Kashmir is yet to evoke reaction from the common man, separatist leaders in the state Thursday rejected it outright, labelling it as “an attempt to divide Jammu and Kashmir on religious and ethnic lines”.
Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of the moderate Hurriyat group, was the first separatist leader to reject the report.
“Today we have seen another attempt being made to confuse and complicate the problem. It is an attempt to give the problem various colours so that it is diluted and becomes complicated. The report has tried to divide Kashmir into fragments and, therefore, we reject the report,” he told media persons here.
Muhammad Yasin Malik, chairman of the pro-freedom Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), told IANS: “Our decision not to meet them (the interlocutors) has proved to be right. It is an intellectual exercise in bankruptcy without any historical background.
“They have tried to divide the state on ethnic and religious lines which would be disastrous not only for the state, but for the entire South Asian region.”
“Kashmir is a political issue and needs to be resolved politically keeping the aspirations of the people in mind,” added Malik.
Speaking to IANS, senior hardline separatist leader, Syed Ali Geelani said: “There is nothing for the people of Kashmir in this report.
“J&K is a disputed territory and the report should have accepted the disputed status of the state. There is no such mention in this report.”
“India has promised the people of the state the right to determine their political future. There have been 18 resolutions of the United Nations Security council on Kashmir and these have been accepted by both India and Pakistan.
“The report has not even tried to address the loosening of the shackles put on the people of Kashmir. It has instead recommended the division of the state into Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir so that Kashmir is converted into a large concentration camp supervised by the Indian security forces,” he said.
“We had rightly boycotted the interlocutors during their visit here and that decision has now been vindicated. We reject the report. It would not change the ground realities and therefore the report is actually a non-issue for us.”
Meanwhile, the ruling National Conference (NC) chose not to comment.
“We don’t want to hasten our reaction. Our senior leadership is studying the report and we will make our reaction public only after a careful study of the report,” party spokesman Tanvir Sadiq told IANS.
The opposition People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) reaction was mixed.
“The report contains some positive features of self-rule, but what all such reports including the recommendations made by the prime minister’s working groups lack is their implementation on ground,” PDP spokesman Naeem Akhtar told IANS.
“So far as the aspect of empowerment has been addressed in the interlocutors’ report, we are afraid the proposed empowerment lacks reflection on ground. What should ordinarily have been done by a middle rung police officer with respect to the removal of security force bunkers here, we have had to wait even for such announcements from the union home minister,” he added.