Highway ban autocratic order: Hurriyat (G)

Srinagar: Hurriyat Conference (G) Thursday strongly condemned the ‘autocratic order’ of the government to restrict the civilian movement on the Srinagar–Jammu highway to facilitate the Amarnath pilgrims travel.
Hurriyat (G) in a statement issued to KNO said that “this is not only ridiculous, humiliating, undemocratic, immoral, but negates government’s own statements that Kashmiri Muslims are supportive and helpful in making the yatra a success.” The statement reads that “how strange and illogical is it, that those helping Yatries, wholeheartedly instead of encouraging and rewarding them, they are strangulated and made to suffer by blocking their vehicular movement.”
“The roads are means of connectivity and are not only used in normal life, but are of prime importance in some desperate and emergency situations. Curtailing and banning such a basic and fundamental lifeline, amounts to gross and unforgivable crime against helpless population,” it said.
It said that how unfortunate and ironic is this, that permanent residents of this state are forced not to use their own land connectivity and are made to wait for hours to allow yatra vehicles. “Kashmiri people never compromised on their tradition of hospitality, brotherhood, communal harmony and social bonding even in the toughest and provocative times, and always played a friendly host, whether to a tourist or a pilgrim, who visited Kashmir,” it added.
Hurriyat (G) appealed human rights bodies, peace loving people, particularly Indian intelligentsia and conscious citizens to come forward and rescue this caged and brutalized nation and help them to ease the strangulating grip of the forced occupation.
Meanwhile, commenting on the recent report of civil society where, in a short span of six months, more than 43 civilians are reported to have been killed, which is in addition to the number of armed youth and forces. “Despite bloodshed in such a large scale government claims to have ensured peace and stability in the state,” the statement added.