Our Goal Is Clear, We Want Freedom: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq

In Indian occupied Kashmir, the Chairman of Hurriyat forum, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, has said that Kashmir struggle is not for the development of roads or seeking economic packages but purely for securing the right to self-determination as promised by the Indian leaders themselves

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd May, 2018 ) :In Indian occupied Kashmir, the Chairman of Hurriyat forum, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, has said that Kashmir struggle is not for the development of roads or seeking economic packages but purely for securing the right to self-determination as promised by the Indian leaders themselves.

According to Kashmir Media Service, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in an angry response to the curbs imposed by the puppet authorities on him and other leaders of the Joint Resistance Leadership took to social media for reaching out to people and put out a 30-minute long video message coming down heavily on the authorities.

Annoyed for being disallowed to reach the Martyrs' Graveyard at Eidgah in Srinagar to pay tributes to his father, Mirwaiz Molvi Muhammad Farooq, on his 28th martyrdom anniversary, he took to Facebook and Twitter to address the people.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, in an obvious reference to the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi's recent speech in Srinagar wherein he asserted that the only solution to every conflict was development, said that the Kashmir dispute was not about seeking roads, jobs, electricity or economic packages.

"Kashmiri people have been sacrificing in huge numbers since 1947 for a right promised to them. We are not demanding anything new but our birth right that is right to self-determination. This right has been promised by none other than the Indian leadership at the Lal Chowk in Srinagar.

Linking Kashmir issue with development is a well-planned move to divert attention of world community from the real ground situation here," he said, adding, "We will not allow that to happen.

" The Mirwaiz condemned the puppet authorities for keeping Syed Ali Gilani under continued house arrest for years and frequently jailing Muhammad Yasin Malik.

"The administration has been trying to keep the leadership away from masses. But we will always find alternate means to reach out to people and convey out strategy," he said, appealing the masses to keep faith in the resistance leadership.

"We will never compromise on the true aspirations of masses. The JRL has decided to involve every segment of society to frame an effective mechanism to achieve our goal," he added. Paying rich tributes to his father Mirwaiz Molvi Muhammad Farooq, Hurriyat leader, Khawaja Abdul Ghani Lone, and martyrs of Hawal massacre on their martyrdom anniversaries, the forum chairman said that the people of Kashmir had been offering their precious lives for a sacred cause.

The Mirwaiz said his family has been suffering since 1947 when Muhajir-e-Milat, Moulana Mirwaiz Muhammad Yousuf Shah, was asked to leave Kashmir along with his family. "Though they tried hard to return back to their roots but every time they were stopped by the successive regimes," he said.

In the video message, the Mirwaiz reminded people of massacres in the history of Kashmir where numerous graveyards were perpetual witnesses to the struggle of masses for political rights. "Today, when we talk of sacrifices, we have to take a pledge to take forward the mission of martyrs collectively.

We have to ask the world community how long selective killing of Kashmiris would continue at the hands of Indian forces," he said, adding, "Our goal is clear, we want freedom."