KL Report
SRINAGAR
Accusing India of trying to convert Kashmir into another Palestine, Save Kounsar Nag Front Saturday said that if proposed Kounsar Nag Yatra is not banned then the people of Kashmir would be left with only alternative to come on roads and resist the government move to commence different types of Yatra in Kashmir round the year.
Scores of people including civil society members and lawyers staged a protest in Press Enclave Srinagar on Saturday alleging that move to start Kounsar Nag Yatra from 29th of this month is an attempt to disrupt ecological balance in Kashmir.
“We don’t have animosity with the people belonging to other religions but we are fighting for the safeguard of our resources and rights. First it was Amarnath Yatra, then Machail Yatra and now Kounsar Nag Yatra and in coming days we will see other Yatra in offing,” Advocate Qazi Irfan told CNS.
They said that stream flowing since centuries is not a religious place and that no historical account proves that Yatra must be executed at the stream. “It is crystal clear that the government of India by organizing fake religious Yatra is trying to change the Muslim character of the Kashmir. The duration of Amarnath Yatra was extended just to give communal colour to that Yatra in which only few odd outsiders used to participate,” another civil society member said.
Terming it a ‘conspiracy’ against the tourism of Kashmir valley, the locals stated that there are thousands of river streams in valley and when people will be given free hand to disturb the environs, the situation ahead would be dreadful. They stated further that they will, in the near future, start a massive mass agitation if government did not stop the proposed Kousar Nag Yatra.
