Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Aug 8: National Conference (NC), while commemorating the sacrifices and 22 year long struggle of Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah for the dignity of this State and its people has said that August 9, 1953 was a black day in the history of Jammu and Kashmir.
“This was the day when Prime Minister of J&K Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was surrounded by the Army and arrested after his popular Government was illegally dismissed by Karan Singh under a deep-rooted political intrigue to erode the special status of the State. After the illegal overthrow of the popular National Conference Government, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was taken to Udhampur and imprisoned in Tara Niwas Palace in the scorching heat of summer while Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad was illegally and unconstitutionally sworn in as the new puppet Prime Minister of the State”, said NC general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar.
“Sheikh chose imprisonment over toeing Delhi’s line at a time when New Delhi wanted to erode Article 370 and put in place a pliant puppet in Srinagar. The unconstitutional and illegal arrest of a Prime Minister inflicted a very deep wound on the psyche of Kashmiris, a wound that remains sore to this very day. Had this coup not taken place in 1953, Kashmir would not have witnessed the haunting turmoil and loss of lives that it did—a political turmoil it continues to suffer and reel under”, Sagar added.
“It has been 61 years today but the ghosts of August 9, 1953 continue to haunt the lives of our people. The conflict that erupted in 1989 was just another manifestation of the resentment that the people of this State harbour in their hearts for the intrigues that have been hatched against their democratic rights. NC on this black day demands the complete and full restoration of Internal Autonomy and safeguarding Article 370 in its existing shape”, Sagar added.
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