Separatists slam Rajnath's statements

Separatists on Thursday claimed that the unprecedented poll boycott has unnerved New Delhi and that is why Home Minister Rajnath Singh was issuing “threat statements” against Kashmiri youth.

“It is ridiculous,” hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani said in statement, reacting to Rajnath’s assertions that he fully agreed with Army Chief General Bipin Rawat’s remarks that people hindering security forces from performing their duties in Kashmir will have to face consequences.

“Instead of stating any logic, they are issuing threats and adding fuel to the fire. It is unfortunate that Rajnath Singh and other Indian politicians, instead of relying on rational thinking, are pursuing their fanatical dogma,” the Hurriyat hawk said. “After the unprecedented poll boycott, authorities in Delhi feel frustrated and unnerved,” he added.

‘Be mature’

Referring to Rajnath’s statement about a transformed Kashmir, Geelani asked the home minister to have a mature approach “as his rhetoric about transformation was already proved a hoax in 2016 when he claimed to change the Kashmir situation in a week’s time”.

Pro-independence JKLF chief Yasin Malik termed Rajnath’s statement provocative and ridiculous. “Anyone dreaming of changing Kashmir and Kashmiris by oppression is living in a fool’s paradise. Kashmiris, from 1947, have been witnessing and enduring Indian aggression, oppression, suppression and genocide, but this tyranny has not and can never break our resolve and passion for freedom,” Malik claimed in a statement.