Srinagar, February 11 (KNO) : Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Chairman Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai on Monday said that it is a deliberate planning of the government of India to keep the people here starved of all the basic necessities of the life due to the frequent closure of the Srinagar-Jammu highway.
Sehrai in a statement issued to KNO said that “since 1947, it is a deliberate policy to seal all other natural and traditional routes and choke Kashmiri people and leave them to suffer and make them into submission by making Kashmiris dependent on route.”
“We are deliberately made to strive, as is the case with closure of the Srinagar-Jammu highway. Our natural routes have been blocked and people have to understand this conspiracy,” he said, adding that “our resources are being looted and illegally exploited.”
He further added that Jammu and Kashmir is rich in natural resources, which is a guarantee for its secure future. “But despite being rich in natural resources, occupied Kashmir is being kept under-developed intentionally and it is the policy by the Government of India to make Kashmiris more and more dependent and ensure that we don’t become self-reliant,” he said. Sehrai said that India was strengthening its economic position by exploiting natural resources of the occupied territory.
Expressing serious concern over the plight of thousands of stranded passengers due to the continuous closure of highway, Sehrai has demanded the rescue of these passengers to their respective destinations. “These passengers are stranded on highway and at Jammu without food and shelter. At the same time, Airline companies started their brazen Loot as they sky rocketed Airfare that too right under the nose of govt which added further miseries, kept passengers suffer and stranded. People are witnessing a complete apathy and brazen callousness of the (government) authorities,” Sehrai said.
Meanwhile, Tehreek e Hurriyat strongly denounced the continuous house arrest of its chairman Mohd Ashraf Sehrai and arresting of party workers Syed Imtiyaz Haider, Ashraf Laya and other activists and said ,”Such undemocratic tactics will not deter pro-freedom leadership from pursuing the just cause.”(KNO)