Srinagar: The Concerned Group of Citizens (CCG) headed by Former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in its report, after their visit to Jammu and Kashmir, termed the claims of the central government about normalcy in Kashmir as a ‘distortion’ of facts.
“The fear and anger among the people on ground in Kashmir has intensified and 95% of the people are found hurt by August 5, 2019 constitutional moves of the central government on erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state,” report of the CCG reads.
Local news gathering agency KNS quoted Kapil Kak, the key member of the CCG as saying “Although Kashmir is comparatively normally but the chaos, fear, anger and alienation is on rise against the Central Government’s August 5, 2019 move of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state.”
He said though the delegation of the concerned CCG during its recent visit to Kashmir visited Kulgam and was not stopped anywhere by security forces but the claims about the empowerment of recently elected DDC representatives were contradicted by both the people on ground and as well as the DDC representatives in Kulgam .He expressed his dismay over the detention of Mirwaiz Molvi Umar Farooq, “CCG delegation was stopped by the security personnel at the gate of Mirwaiz Manzil and after long wait of 15 minutes we were allowed to talk to Mirwaiz over phone from the gate. He is not allowed to lead Friday prayers for the last 90 consecutive Fridays”. Kak added, “I am a Kashmiri who is born and educated in Kashmir found Kashmiris hurt and humiliated.This is the eight visits of CCG members in last three years and this time I found people of Kashmir totally against August 5, 2019 constitutional moves of the central government. They want restoration of Article 370,Article 35 A and statehood as it was existing before August 5,2019″.
About the possibility of any response from the central government Kapil Kak said “we the members of the CCG are the representatives of subcontinental society with Yashwant Sinha being the former Union Finance Minister, Wajahat Habibulah a former Chief Information Commissioner,bharat bhushan and myself a retired air Marshall of the Indian Air Force”.No one would expect ceasefire in borders but ceasefire agreement was all of a sudden announced and implemented. External forces are playing their role in removing the deadlock between India and Pakistan over Jammu and Kashmir. India is sending 4.5 crore doses of covid vaccine to Pakistan next week. Nothing is impossible. We have put 17 pages report in public domain and forwarded it to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Home Minister “.
The retired top ranking air force official said that “onus lies on the central government to initiate a dialogue for reducing the growing anger, mistrust and alienation of the people and finally take a call over the status and position of Jammu and Kashmir.(KNS)
