Srinagar, July 11 (KNO) : Concluding three-day-long sit-in, seeking tunnel for Karnah and Gurez, AIP President and PUF leader Er Rasheed Thursday visited Civil Secretariat barefooted from site of sit-in to Chief Secretary’s office to express solidarity with the people of Karnah and Gurez and to mark a protest against silence of the government over the issue.
Talking to media persons on the conclusion of sit-in, Er Rasheed as per a statement issued to KNO said that government will have to do justice with the people of Karnah and Gurez, who are living a miserable life for the want of proper road connectivity.
Thanking people hailing from different walks of life, who joined the sit-in and expressed their solidarity with the programme, Er Rasheed said, “The three-day sit-in must be a wakeup call for the state and central government and steps should be taken to ensure that work on these two prestigious tunnels starts at an earliest, so that precious lives, time and energy is saved. People of Karnah and Gurez do not need cross border shelling, neither has government of India and Pakistan have any moral authority to make these places battle fields and still deprive the innocent but brave citizens of these places from getting basic amenities”.
Er Rasheed along with Sheikh Gh. Nabi, retired District and Sessions Judge from Karnah on behalf of civil society Karnah walked in civil secretariat to submit the memorandum to the government.
He said that walking barefooted to civil secretariat is just a message not for the government but the common masses too not to underestimate the sufferings of people of border areas and we all must treat them too as humans.
“While in most of the cities and towns people have got macadamized roads but isn’t it shameful that in Karnah and Gurez it takes sometimes even a week to reach dead body his home,’ he said.
Er Rasheed submitted a memorandum to the government through Chief Secretary urging Union and State governments to take up the construction work for Karnah and Gurez Tunnels in hand at an earliest.
He added that he will be writing to Union surface transport minister Nitin Gadkaray over the issue. “If government fails to respond positively, we will knock and rock power corridors in Delhi by peaceful sit-in and other means,” he added.(KNO)