Various separatist leaders and parties have scoffed at Union home minister P. Chidambaram’s charge that terror group LeT is stoking fire in the Kashmir Valley. “They kill our innocent youth and when people protest they drag in Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Pakistan and accuse them of instigating trouble. They do it to hoodwink the world
community and try to plead innocence after committing crime against the humanity,” charged chief Muslim cleric and chairman of his faction of separatist Hurriyat Conference alliance Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
He also took exception to the attempts being made by some of the political and religious groups outside the Valley to link the present crisis in Kashmir with the annual Amarnath yatra.
“It has nothing to do with the Amarnath yatra. We want it to pass off peacefully,” he said, adding, “Our protests are against the human rights violations and unabated killing of innocent civilians in Kashmir.”
Former chief minister and patron of opposition PDP Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, while expressing dismay at the attempts to relate the political crisis in the state to the Amarnath yatra, said, “The propounders of this thoughtless conspiracy angle are doing no service either to the country or the smooth passage of the pilgrimage. He asserted Amarnath yatra was integral to Kashmiri ethos. The people here do not need any lessons in communal harmony as they have historically been the best guarantee for the hospitality and security of the pilgrims.