Srinagar/ June 16: Joint Resistance leadership on Sunday ridiculed the TV news channels for what it called running a smear campaign and propaganda on threats to upcoming Amarnath Yatra and said that there is no threat to the Amarnath Yatra from the people of Kashmir.
In a joint statement issued here on Sunday the Joint Resistance Leadership comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani the Hurriyat Conference (G) Chairma, Mirwaiz Molvi Umar Farooq the Hurriyat Conference (M) Chairman and Mohammad Yaseen Malik the incarcerated JKLF Chairman said Kashmiri people never compromised on their tradition of hospitality, even in the toughest and trying times, and always played a friendly host, whether to a tourist or an Amarnath pilgrim who came to Kashmir.
Ridiculing those electronic media channels for running a smear campaign and propaganda about the threats to Amarnath Yatra and pilgrims, the leadership said that some electronic channels are hell bent to spread hate and falsehoods on Kashmir. There is no threat to Amarnath Yatris from Kashmiris as reported by some mischievous media outlets from their cozy studios in New Delhi and these pilgrims are very much safe in the Valley.
JRL said fake news, twisting of facts and projecting villainous pictures of Kashmiri’s has been the modus operandi of these news channels and people of Kashmir and tourists have understood their ulterior motives and nobody is paying heed to their false reporting any more “We want people of India to come to Kashmir and stay here and to see for themselves, the ultimate form of repression being unleashed by the lakhs of government forces, who are muzzling the genuine rights of people under military might and how youth are pushed to the wall due to the iron-fist policy of New Delhi,” the leadership said.
The leadership said tourists and Amarnath Pilgrims visiting Kashmir can go places of their choice and tell the actual ground reality to rest of the people across India and also expose these sections of Indian media who have adopted a jingoistic approach vis-a-vis Kashmir just to get their TRPs high. Calling the warm hospitality of the people of Kashmir a globally acknowledged fact, Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) in the backdrop of Amarnath Yatra said that Kashmiri people will continue to retain and nourish this tradition as also the tradition of brotherhood communal amity.
The leadership said that some brains have always been working behind the scenes and framing policies to keep the people of India away from Kashmir, to be able to promote false propaganda about us and give justification for the reign of terror unleashed by forces and we on behalf of the entire people of Kashmir, Yatris and tourists should feel ensured that there is no threat or danger to their lives from Kashmiri’s and that they can perform their religious rituals without any worry. The leadership appealed to the pilgrims and tourists not to pay heed to the false propaganda stories being run by a few Delhi-based news channels and instead focus on their Kashmir sojourn without any fear and intimidation.
