SRINAGAR” Kashmir belongs to Kashmiris and India has no right to impose its decisions against their wishes It will be their discretion whether to merge with India or Pakistan or remain independent” said Chairman of PUCL as well as Of Co-ordination committee on Kashmir V.N.Tarkunde. However he also hastened to add that it was his personal view.
V-M-Tarkunde was a accompanied by Balraj Puri and Sulochna Shikhre representing Co-ordination Committee on Kashmir to collect information on the allegations of human rights abuses in Kashmir. A statement released to the press on the occasion said that the Visiting team members after meeting a large number of people Of different communities discovered that the repeated claims made by the Government about steps taken for the improvement of the region were unwarranted as these intentions failed to percolate down to the lower strata of the Society in the valley.
Despite the assurances held out by senior officials of the Government about its determination to prevent the excessive use of force they found that the ranks of security forces were ignorant.
The visiting members were also shocked to see that the security forces were not unwelcome to the innocent and uninvolved people at many places and the popularity “of the militants was also on the decline.
In this situation the committee has demanded that the Government in order to inspire confidence among the people should duly publish the projects to help them.
The committee appealed to the people of Kashmir to confine themselves exclusively to the peaceful methods of a struggle for their legitimized aspirations.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 5, 1992
