First meeting since Aug 5 last year: Senior PDP leaders meet, seek release of all political detainees

Seeking “immediate release” of all political detainees irrespective of their political ideology, whether lodged in Kashmir or outside, the party leadership expressed deep anguish over “the recent spree of the killing of innocent people from Shopian to Sopore to Batamalloo” and demanded that perpetrators be brought to book and families be given justice.

In Mufti’s absence, the meeting was chaired by party vice- president A R Veeri and attended by senior party leaders, including G N Lone Hanjura (general secretary), Nizam udin Bhat, Muhammad Sartaj Madni, Naeem Akhter and Syed Farooq Andrabi, among others.

Last week, the party’s youth wing, led by Waheed-ur-Rehman Para held a meeting at the party headquarters at Srinagar.

The leaders also observed that while on one hand, the internal situation of the Union Territory remains precarious, the situation at LoC & LAC is also on the boil. “Therefore, in the meeting, it was resolved that the party would continue to fight for resolution of the basic issue and advocate dialogue and reconciliation with all the stakeholders,” said the statement.

Party leaders had attempted to hold a meeting of its office bearers on September 3, but were restricted from leaving their homes at the time, citing Covid-19 SOPs.

Underscoring that post august 5, 2019 a “false semblance of normalcy” had been created resembling “the peace of the graveyard”, the statement said “the situation has created a stalemate where nothing except anti-Kashmiri steps like domicile laws etc are being pushed in a hurry. These steps are further adding to the anger and frustrations of people, whose resolve to fight this injustice gets stronger with time.”

It was also resolved that the party stands by thousands of youngsters of Kashmir “who are routinely harassed and humiliated” at the hands of security forces. “Such actions against our youth are unacceptable and would be resisted,” the party statement said.