SRINAGAR: Rejecting the claim of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that a “handful of people who have been misled” were causing trouble in Indian-held Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Yasin Malik said that describing the overwhelming pro-freedom population of the disputed state as misled people was an old tradition of Indian rulers
Speaking at an All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said what Kashmiris wanted was clear and could be easily understood by those who wanted to understand it. “India just has to stop its cacophony and listen to with a view to understand, and not to deny,” he said.
He reiterated that Kashmir was a political dispute to be addressed in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of its people as guaranteed to them by the world community and ratified by India and Pakistan.
Kashmiri lawmaker Abdul Rasheed said that Modi’s speech has rendered Kashmiris hopeless.