JOIN USGeelani sets terms for peace in Kashmir
Addressing a press conference here, he said he is ready to review his “Quit Kashmir” programme if the Centre accepts his five conditions. Geelani threatened to intensify the protests if his conditions are not accepted immediately.
Geelani’s terms, among other things, include that the Centre accepts that Kashmir is an international dispute, go for demilitarisation and release Kashmiri prisoners, including Mohammad Afzal Guru, awarded death sentence in the Parliament attack case, before Id (September 11).
Geelani toughened his stand at a time when a delegation of prominent members of the civil society associated with the New Delhi-based “Peace Foundation” met with him and staged a sit-in protest here against the “killing of innocent by police and security forces in Kashmir.”
“The innocent are being mercilessly killed and we would inform our countrymen as to what is happening in Kashmir,” said Swami Agnivesh, head of the delegation. He stated that the government has no justification for such killings.
The sit-in protest was staged amid curfew which remained in force in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley.
The hardliner at his press conference also demanded a public commitment by the prime minister that no more killings and no more arrests will take place.
“The Government of India should also discipline troops and order them to stop humiliating people and destroying public and private property; withdraw cases against youths pending in courts for past 20 years; the process of punishing the perpetrators of state violence has to begin with the conviction of troops responsible for the recent 64 killings and it has to be followed by convicting all those responsible for war crimes in Jammu and Kashmir,” the senior separatist leader said.
As the liberty, honour and future of Kashmiris cannot wait endlessly for these measures to be implemented by India, “we urge the Indian leadership to end oppression and implement these measures immediately so that the current campaign of mass protests can be reviewed. If my conditions are implemented on ground in letter and spirit, the measures would facilitate in the creation of conducive atmosphere, enabling Jammu and Kashmir leadership to meet, consult and consolidate public opinion for the peaceful resolution of Kashmir dispute in accordance with the democratic principle of right to self-determination,” he said.