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| Fearing NIA crackdown, separatists welcome yatris | | Kuch to hai jis ki parda daari hai! | | Early Times Report
Jammu, June 29: At a time when the NIA is all set to tighten the noose around them, the separatists in Kashmir have once again turned into 'tour operators' and have started campaigning for Kashmir's tourism.
In a statement on Friday, the Joint Resistance Leadership comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik termed Kashmiris as hospitable and have even gone ahead with welcoming the Amarnath pilgrims to Valley. All this is being done by them to hoodwink public opinion and distract the masses from the crimes they have committed against the people and how they have repeatedly developed fear psychosis in the minds of then tourists against Kashmir, leaving the tourism sector dying on a deathbed.
As NIA has hinted at a massive crackdown against the Hurriyat once again, the separatists have begun welcoming the Amarnath pilgrims. What Geelani and other separatists have forgotten is their own venom they used to spit against the religious pilgrimage in the past.
Geelani's statement about annual Amarnath Yatra is first of its kind since he formed his faction of Hurriyat Conference. The aged separatist termed the alleged "terror threat" to the upcoming Amarnath Yatra as a "calculated move aimed at maligning and discrediting the political struggle of Kashmiris."
He said that Amarnath yatra is being conducted for decades and the people here have treated the pilgrims with unique hospitality and received them as their guests.
"However, adverse propaganda has been launched by Indian media wherein they are propagating that Amarnath yatris are facing threat from people of the state. Terror threat to the upcoming Amarnath yatra is a blatant lie aimed at maligning the Kashmir movement," he said.
It is the same Geelani who on May 3, 2015, while addressing a rally in south Kashmir's Tral area had said that the Amarnath Yatra in south Kashmir Himalayas should be restricted to 30 days. The rally, which was the first in seven years by the separatist leader in the militancy-infested township, also reportedly witnessed pro-Pakistan sloganeering and waving of Pakistani flags.
"We advise the government to restrict the yatra to one month like Uttarakhand-Gangotri yatra timetable. It will be safe for the pilgrims as well as the environment," Geelani had said then.
Geelani's close aide Shabir Shah too had demanded restriction on Amarnath Yatra. "We're not against the Yatra but the aggressive way the pilgrimage is being conducted and its duration extended is totally unacceptable to us. We also reject the point that Amarnath Yatra boosts the economy of the state at a large scale. The arrival of limitless pilgrims to a mountainous region largely affects the surroundings and leaves negative effects upon the overall environment of the state," Shah had said.
"The huge concentration of Yatris as the main reason behind the melting of glaciers in mountainous region, floods, and diseases like Hepatitis, Shah said. |
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