‘It also shows Kashmir issue was used by separatists for personal gains’
Jammu and Kashmir Director-General of Police Dilbagh Singh on Tuesday termed the resignation of Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Geelani “an admission that his mission has failed and the Kashmir issue was used by separatists for personal gains”.
Inaugurating a women police station at Rajouri, he said Mr. Geelani’s letter to the Hurriyat constituents was an “eye-opener”. “Geelani has admitted that they [the separatists] have miserably failed in their mission and the Kashmir issue was used by the people for their personal gains. He has confessed that his path was wrong, and they were propagating negative-thinking,” Mr. Singh said.
The DGP said Mr. Geelani also highlighted “how drugs were being traded from across the Line of Control to this side”.
Mr. Singh said 128 militants had been killed in Kashmir so far this year. “This is for the first time in the many years past that in the month of June 48 militants have been killed,” he said. But he warned that militants were trying to use the Machil and Gurez routes to enter Jammu and Kashmir.
Mr. Geelani, who resigned from the Hurriyat on Monday, has accused the Pakistan chapter of “indiscipline”.
“The Azad Kashmir branch of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference is just a representative forum. It is not authorised to take any individual or collective decision. Accessing assemblies and ministries through their own families and then actively participating in the government structure there, lining up against each other internally, quarrels, financial irregularities and countless such issues have been the subject of public debate.
“Recently, on the basis of investigations, some of those involved were fired. And investigations into the remaining gentlemen were also under way, but your representatives there, considering this process of investigation as an insult, started calling separate meetings after which orders were issued to dissolve the organizational structure there until further orders,” it reads.
He said the Pakistan-based Hurriyat disregarded all moral, constitutional and organisational rules and “formed a parallel structure by holding a self-styled Shura [consultation]”.
Mr. Geelani said he could not bear the responsibility for the weaknesses and shortcomings as well as performance of his colleagues. “Until my passing from this mortal world, I will continue to fight against Indian colonialism and continue to fulfil my right to guide my people as much as I can,” he said.
With inputs from The Hindu