Blocking fruit trucks is tantamount to perishing Kashmir economy: Shabir Shah
SRINAGAR, Sep 27 (SABAH): Senior APHC leader and chairman Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) Shabir Ahmed Shah while condemning in strong terms the Indian occupation authorities move to block smooth passage of fruit-laden trucks on high-way has said that the move was a deliberate attempt to destroy the fruit industry and choke Kashmiris local economy.
In his message from Tihar jail, the incarcerated APHC leader, while referring to Modi government’s bias against Kashmiris, said that the Hindutva influenced regime spared no effort to punish Kashmiris. He said that the halting of apple-laden trucks at Kashmir Highway for weeks and letting the fruit rot was nothing but a willful ploy aimed at inflicting losses on Kashmiri fruit growers.
He said that the BJP has a history of resorting to such mean tactics. “In 2008, economic blockade of Kashmir was enforced to cut off essential supplies to the valley and now same is being repeated to strangulate Kashmir’s economy”, Shah said, adding that in Jammu region two Kashmiri drivers were burnt alive and vehicles owned by Kashmiris were torched along with the goods to enforce the economic blockade.
Urging the world human rights organizations to take effective notice of the matter, Shah said that creating impediments in the free movement of fruit-laden trucks on the main highway was tantamount to destroying Kashmir’s largest fruit industry.
Shah also took strong notice of the witch-hunt against Kashmiri religious intellectuals and seizure of Auqaf land by the Indian authorities.
Meanwhile, the DFP chairman expressed his gratitude to the prime minister of Pakistan Mian Shahbaz Sharif for raising the issue of Kashmir vociferously during his speech at the UN General Assembly.
He also thanked the Turkish president Recep Tayyab Erdogan for his consistent support and advocating the Kashmiris’ just cause at international level.