SRINAGAR: The chairman of the JKLF, Muhammad Yasin Malik, on Monday described January 21 as a landmark in the 5000- year-long history of Kashmir, saying this was the first time that the people of Kashmir had come into the streets in a mass revolution for independence.
This was the day when the Indian forces began to turn every street and lane in Kashmir into a Jalianwala Bagh, Malik said at a rally held in central Srinagar to commemorate the Gaw Kadal massacre of 1990.
The united Indian subcontinent had witnessed only one Jalainwala Bagh during its freedom struggle, but the Indian government has perpetrated numerous such bloodbaths in Kashmir as in Handwara, Sopore, By-Pass, Bijbehara and Gaw Kadal, putting thousands of people to the sword, Malik said.
This day reminds us of those innocent martyrs who were done to death for no sin, and whose savage killers roam free even to this date, he said.
We are the trustees of their sacred blood, and reaffirm the pledge today that we will not shirk from any sacrifice to achieve the goals of their holy mission, he said.
Thousands of martyrs graveyards have sprung up across the state during the past 22 years where lakhs of our martyrs lie buried, and an entire generation has laid down its life, he said.
On this historic day, we renew our pledge to uphold the sanctity of their blood, he said.
It is highly condemnable that Kashmiri detainees are being awarded life-sentences by implicating them in 22-year-old cases, he said.
Kashmiris had made a positive transition from violence to non-violence by launching a peaceful mass upsurge in 2008, 2009, 2010, he said.
This peaceful approach should have been respected, but what happened was quite the opposite, he said.
The peaceful upsurge was crushed with bullets and shells, and now the process is being carried forward with the new policy of awarding life sentences to our youth and detainees, he said.
The JKLF has begun an agitation against this trend which will be continued till we attain our goals, he said.
India, which was declared a republic in 1952, should have taken steps to fulfill pledges made to the Kashmiri people at Lal Chowk and in the Indian parliament, he said.
On the contrary, when Kashmiris raised their voice to be resolved on these pledges, they were showered with bullets and shells, and answered with jail and death and destruction, he said.
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