[Reader-list] PK Reply to Mufti

[Pawan Durani]

Panun Kashmir calls upon all citizens of India not to take the statement of
PDP patron Mufti Mohd Sayyad at its face value but to thoroughly analyse it
and read what is behind the words and between the lines. Panun Kashmir
outrightly rejects the contention of the PDP patron that the agitation in
Jammu region is motivated by hatred, parochialism and an intention to damage
the amiable ethos in the state.

Panun Kashmir views the agitation in Jammu region as an assertion against
culture of intolerance and mindset of exclusivism which PDP and its ilk in
the state have perpetuated.  The state has reached a stage where even
providing temporary facilities for conduct of a Hindu pilgrimage to Amarnath
shrine is considered as an affront to the sensibilities of people who
identify with political ideology as practiced by PDP. The entire campaign
which was started by PDP to scuttle the yatra and deny the transfer of land
to build facilities for Hindu pilgrims is an expression of hatered and
xenophobia. People of Jammu including  the displaced Hindus from
Kashmirhave risen against this brazen intolerance. They have risen to
raise their
voice against the campaign of religious cleansing which started with the
forced expulsion of  the entire population of Hindus from Kashmir valley ,
destruction of Hindu habitat there which includes hundreds of temples and
shrines and is now seeking to disrupt the  centuries old  pilgrimage  to
Amarnath cave.  The people of Jammu have risen against a mindset that treats
the Province of Jammu as a colony of Kashmiri Muslim hegemony.  The people
of Jammu have risen to call a halt to an era of discrimination, exploittion
and subjugation at all levels and in all spheres of life.

Nobody believes in the subterfuges which PDP patron has put forward to hide
his communal and fundamentalist agenda in the state. Everybody knows now
that PDP has exerted all its energies to suck the people of Kashmir valley
into the whirlpool of competitive communalism and secessionism. PDP is not a
messiah of peace in the state but a vicious force which is relentlessly
wrecking the chances of peace. PDP has day in and day out sought to
legitimize terrorism and subvert the war against terrorism. The Self-Rule
proposal which guides the politics of PDP at present only aims at dividing
Jammu Kashmir into Hindu and Muslim political domains to destroy the secular
fabric and unleash forces of balkanization in rest of India. PDP overtly and
covertly has sought to undermine the historical identity of Kashmir so that
the religion based identity politics in Kashmir integrates easily with
pan-islamist imperatives. PDP policies have sought to give premium to
Islamist terrorism and remove all moral censors against talibinisation of
Kashmir.  To any discerning students of politics and history of the state,
PDP will appear to be the frontline instrument of Jamat-i-Islami.

Panun Kashmir would like all peace loving citizens of India to recognize the
regressive and bigoted ideograph of PDP.  A party which seeks inspiration
from such periods in the history of Kashmir like the Chak rule when the
blood of Kashmiris was spilled both in the name of religion and
sectarianism, can only breed hatred.  The party which advocates development
and progress based on religious identity can never nourish brotherhood
amongst the citizens.  The party which under one pretext or the other seeks
the state to subsidize terrorism will only contribute to the thriving of
terrorism.

The PDP patron is on record to have eulogized organizations like Hamas and
has asked people of Kashmir to emulate it.  The leaders of PDP have
described terrorists as freedom fighters and martyrs.  He mischievously
equates Kashmir with the Palestinian issue.  He forgets that the
Palestinians are the dispossessed people, as are the displaced Hindus of
Kashmir. He gloats over the fact that Kashmir is over-empovered in all
spheres reducing the other regions of the state into subject territories.

The movement which PDP wants the world to recognize as a freedom movement,
is primarily a movement for the destruction of the basic freedoms of the
humankind and its first expression was the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus.
Panun Kashmir condemns the statement of Mufti Mohd Sayad in its entire
content and context.  Panun Kashmir once again reiterates that the agitation
in Jammu is an agitation against the forces of intolerance and communalism
who have transformed J&K State as a prison house for the Hindus of the state
and all other diversities that do not subscribe to the politics of
exclusivism.
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