By Zishan Amiri
Srinagar, Mar 27: The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman, Yasin Malik, on Tuesday came hard on those criticising the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) for frequently calling shutdowns.
Targeting the journalists, High Court Bar Association (HCBA), Civil Society members and also a few associated with Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH), Malik said, “They say that we don’t have any other strategy apart from calling for shutdowns. Do you have a better suggestion? Then, tell us.”
Malik was addressing a seminar organised by the HCBA to pay tributes to the slain human rights lawyer and activist Advocate Jalil Andrabi on his death anniversary.
On March 8, 1996, Andrabi was, reportedly, kidnapped by the government forces when he was travelling in his car; on March 27, 19 days later, his body was found at Kursu Rajbagh here on the banks of the Jhelum River.
Paying tributes to Andrabi, Malik remembered him as an “honourable member of HCBA and also a JKLF associate”.
Malik, lauding his JRL counterparts Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said, “It is the job of a leader to show resistance.”
“We will continue doing so and will never sit silent,” he said.
Remembering the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) commander Burhan Wani, killed in 2016 by the government forces, Malik said, “He (Burhan) kept the struggle in Kashmir alive when India claimed there is no resistance in the Valley.”
During his speech, Malik also criticised the Modi-led BJP government.
“The previous governments in New Delhi at least tried to avoid controversies. But the current government just wants to keep the pot boiling in Kashmir,” he said.
“National Investigation Agency (NIA) also tried to bring fear to the leaders as well as to the common people. But it could not,” Malik said.
