Awami Ittehad Party president Engineer Sheikh Abdul Rasheed on Friday said that it is not the security forces but the people of Kashmir who make the annual Amarnath Yatra successful.
“It is the people of Kashmir like traders, civil society, Hurriyat, mainstream parties and especially the ponywallas of south Kashmir who make the yatra successful and not the security forces,” Er Rasheed said while holding a sit-in at Press Enclave in Srinagar against the suspension of the train service from Banihal to Qazigund in view of the yatra.
He said that the intellectual class and society needs to understand that the people of Kashmir are not fundamentalists but a peace-loving society.
“From Hurriyat to militants, every one has welcomed them even the incarcerated Shabir Shah had gone to welcome the Yatris. Then why Kashmiris are always shown in a bad light,” Er Rasheed questioned.
He said that Hurriyat, traders, and all other sections of the society have unequivocally welcomed the yatris.
He said that whenever a Kashmiri Pandit dies in the valley it is a Kashmir Muslim neighbor who is always there to help his or her neighbor.
“Stop giving us lectures on pluralism and secularism. And stop dividing us,” Er Rasheed said.
Referring to ban on train services, Er. Rasheed said that these are only tactics to polarize the local population of the state.