Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 3: Reiterating its call to release all the youth involved in flimsy cases the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) today said Government was targeting Shopian for its refusal to succumb to its strong arm methods.
In a statement the party president Mehbooba Mufti while condemning the continued harassment of youth across Kashmir said a rein of terror had been let loose in Shopian which had observed a strike for fifth day without being able to move the callous and insensitive Government.
Mehbooba said the Government is using police to protect it from the wrath of the people generated by its inability to provide justice or good governance. She said the application of the dreaded Public Safety Act (PSA) had become a norm and many youth had been slapped with this ‘lawless law’ in Shopian also. “Omar Abdullah Government has declared a war against the youth of the Valley while every body else is faced with uncertainty, insecurity and State terror”, she said.
Referring to reports of wanton highhandedness of security forces in different parts of the region, Mehbooba said the Government has given them a licence to keep a lid on the anger and pain suffered by people under the present dispensation. She said in any society the police is needed for maintaining public order and upholding civil liberties but in J&K under NC congress rule the sole purpose of police is to protect the ruling clan.
Mehbooba said the police has been indulging in worst atrocities in Shopian where more than a dozen boys have been arrested and some detained under the PSA. Police routinely breaks into homes and damages property, she said. It seems the Government has still not been able to come to terms with the resistance put up by the courageous people of Shopian who in 2009 rose up against the Government seeking justice for the two young women Aasia and Neelofar. “It looks like the Government is trying to take revenge from the people of Shopian”, she said while demanding immediate release of the arrested youth.