Disempowerment, marginalization of Kashmiris has been central to BJP’s settler colonial project in IoK: Shabir Ahmed Shah

SRINAGAR, August 19 (SABAH): Senior leader of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Shabir Ahmed Shah, while denouncing Indian occupation authorities’ move to grant voting rights to Indian citizens ordinarily residing in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir, has termed it yet another attempt of political disempowerment and marginalization of the region’s Muslim majority.

In a message from Tihar jail, the incarcerated APHC leader Shabbir Ahmed Shah while reacting to recent development said, “Disempowerment, dispossession, and marginalization of the indigenous population has been central to BJP government’s settler colonial project in Kashmir”.

Terming the move as part of the apartheid regime’s sinister plan to reduce Kashmiris’ centrality in the electoral politics, he said, “Conquering Kashmir, its people and resources by all means has since long been a dream project of the India’s Hindutva worriers”.

“From abrogation of article 370 and 35 A to changing Kashmir’s age-old domicile law, from redrawing of the region’s electoral maps to tilting balance of power in favour of a particular party and now granting voting rights to non-state subjects are some of the dangerous moves the Indian government had taken to change the region’s demography,  wipe off Kashmiris’ political, religious and cultural identity”, Shah said, adding that all these actions were not only a brazen violation of the UN resolutions but also a violation of Indian law.

While urging people to come forward to foil this new conspiracy, the APHC said that marginalization and elimination of indigenous people was the ultimate goal of the BJP.

The latest move, he said, speaks a lot about the BJP’s anti-Kashmir policies and its ambitious plan to install a Hindu chief minister in the state. Kashmiris, he said, have time and again foiled Indian conspiracies. “They will never allow any such thing to happen in Kashmir that might reduce them to second-class citizens”, he said.

Shabbir Ahmed Shah also urged Kashmiris to ensure unity in their ranks to thwart the conspiracies the BJP has been hatching against Kashmiris every now and then. He also urged the world to hold the Indian government accountable for its crimes in Kashmir and stop it from changing the region’s demography.