New Delhi, October 13, 2019 (PPI-OT): Civil rights activists in India have urged the Indian government to restore special status of occupied Kashmir and take steps to bring back normalcy in the territory. Addressing news conference at the Press Club in New Delhi, social activist, Shabnam Hashmi, said that the abrogation of Article 370, which gave special status to occupied Kashmir, was a mindless exercise carried out by the BJP-led government.
She said Modi government first did demonetisation and said this will end terrorism, then it claimed of carrying out surgical strikes and said terror had ended. On February 26, after the Balakot airstrike, they claimed of killing around 600 militants. “Now, they have published an advertisement in newspapers, saying shops and schools are shut in the Kashmir Valley due to the fear of militants. If the government has killed all the militants, then whom they are talking about now,” she said. Delhi-based journalist and writer, Revati Laul, said that removing Kashmir’s special status was the main cause of trauma for the people of occupied Kashmir.
“People in Jammu have lost business because it was dependent on Kashmir and they are being force-fed this narrative that you have to say you like it. In Jammu, more people refused to talk to us as compared to Kashmir,” she said. The activists urged the Indian government to restore Kashmir’s special status, mobile and internet services and remove the restrictions on the movement of people in the Kashmir Valley.
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