House arrest won’t deter us: Gupkar Alliance
SRINAGAR: The Gupkar Alliance on Article 370 restoration on Saturday asserted it would continue its struggle after its leaders were put under house arrest and not allowed by the administration to protest against the Delimitation Commission’s draft proposal of allotting six additional Assembly seats to Jammu and only one to Kashmir.
“We will not give up. We will continue our struggle and will raise our voice. We will not be cowed down,” Gupkar Alliance spokesman and CPI (M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami told this daily.
Tarigami, with PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and vice-president Omar Abdullah, was placed under house arrest. They were scheduled to stage a protest against the Delimitation Commission’s draft proposal. Security personnel and vehicles were deployed outside the residences of the leaders.
The Gupkar Alliance had announced a protest would be staged on Saturday. The parties have rejected the Delimitation Commission’s draft proposal, saying that Kashmir’s population is about 15 lakh more than that of Jammu.
Referring to the restrictions, Tarigami said, “This is what they stand for. This is how they are treating the people of Kashmir. This confirms our concern. This is their real face on Kashmir.”
Terming the Delimitation Commission proposals ‘very divisive’, he said, “It amounts to further disempowering the people of Kashmir. They want more disempowerment of the people of Kashmir and their aim is to divide the ranks of people and pitch regions and communities against one another just for the votes.” The Gupkar Alliance spokesman said alliance leaders would be meeting soon to chalk out future strategy.
“Government of India trumpets scrapping Article 370 & dismembering J&K throughout the country but is deeply paranoid & intolerant when people of J&K want to protest against its disempowerment,” tweeted Mufti.