File photo: Sajad Lone (Picture credit: PTI)
SRINAGAR: A day after Mirwaiz Umar Farooq justified the removal of the “Chairman, All Parties Hurriyat Conference” designation from his X account as a “Hobson’s choice,” People’s Conference chairman and MLA Sajad Lone on Saturday urged people to question the Kashmir chief cleric’s “surrender in lieu of protocol and CRPF security.”“I visited my constituency, where villagers told me that a young man was arrested for sharing a Facebook post and released after two years, while another was picked up 15 days ago merely for liking a post,” Lone said, adding that in contrast, Mirwaiz modified his X bio to receive “five-star treatment”.Accusing the Kashmiri separatist of double standards, Lone recalled how Hurriyat brass vilified him as an “agency man” after he entered mainstream politics decades ago.“There was intense militancy at the time, and how I am alive today is known only to God,” Lone said. While asserting that he does not seek public vindication, he added, “He (Mirwaiz) should apologise for what was done to me in the past. That is the least he can do.”After removing the Hurriyat chairman designation from X on Thursday, Mirwaiz said on Friday, “I was being pressured by the authorities to make changes to my X handle as Hurriyat chairman, as all constituents of the Hurriyat Conference, including the Awami Action Committee that I head, have been banned under the UAPA.” “At a time when public space and avenues of communication stand severely restricted, this platform remains among the very few means available to me to reach out to my people… Under such circumstances, it is a Hobson’s choice I was left to make,” Mirwaiz said.PDP and National Conference have backed Mirwaiz, calling the removal of bio as a personal choice and condemning the authorities for harassing Mirwaiz.Commenting on the Dec 23 HC judgment dismissing former CM Mehbooba Mufti’s plea seeking the transfer of Kashmiri political prisoners from jails outside J&K to prisons within the UT, Lone said, “I am convinced Madam (Mehbooba Mufti) is doing drama.”The People’s Conference chief also criticised the growing incidents of harassment of Kashmiris in different parts of the country. “It is eroding the very foundations of national integration and must be treated as a matter of national security… If nothing changes, we will collectively go to Delhi and protest,” Lone said.
