Downtown gateway a ‘cosmetic measure’, won’t yield anything without addressing the basic issue: Mirwaiz

Srinagar: Hurriyat(M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Wednesday took at jibe at ruling dispensation, while saying that opening of gateway to downtown Srinagar will “not yield anything without addressing the basic issue”.
Terming construction of a gateway as a “cosmetic” measure, Mirwaiz said residents of downtown for years had to face the “harassment” at the hands of authorities and attracting people through gateway will not yield anything. Mirwaiz was speaking in wake of newly constructed gateway to downtown Srinagar named Bab-ul-Iqbal near Baba Dawoodi Khaki bridge.
Taking to social networking site, Twitter, Mirwaiz said: “Attracting people to downtown by building some gateway, while for decades resorting to revengeful and dictatorial measures of repeatedly subjecting its residents to curfews, restrictions, harassment and what not! cosmetic measures without addressing basic issue will not yield much”.