Srinagar: The police on Saturday stopped separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq from holding a press conference at his residence. The Mirwaiz had called the presser to refute the charge levelled by a private national TV channel that he has amassed huge assets and wealth through money laundering.
The police laid Concertina razor wire on the road outside his residence in Srinagar’s Nigeen area to block the reporters from entering the premises.
The Mirwaiz who is under house arrest for the last about six weeks condemned the “undemocratic act which reflects the frustration of the government”. He also took the issue to social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
He alleged, “The Government of India and the Indian media have embarked on a consistent policy of playing intricate mind games with all those who consider rational that Kashmir is a dispute requiring resolution. Resolution is a wide term with wide connotations and among it inclusive dialogue among all stakeholders can be conducive way forward”. “However, to subvert this possibility political strategists have now advised the pre-eminent political class in India to embark upon intricate mind games”, he added.
“For that the NIA has been roped in to frame the pro-freedom leadership through fabricated charges into a legal tangle. The India media is being utilized to facilitate that process further through a sustained and vicious campaign of spreading lies about the pro-freedom leadership and distorting facts”, he alleged.
Referring to a specific report on a TV channel on Friday night, he said that it (channel) “crossed all limits and launched a tirade of defamatory broadcasts with a tendentious motive to defame me both as the religious head of the Muslim community in J&K and as an independent head of a political party with a definite political ideology”.
He said, “Even members of my family are being dragged into this vortex of lies and preposterous allegations, which is extremely deplorable, to say the least”.
He also said that in order to keep the record straight, he refutes all ‘defamatory’ allegations that he has amassed illegal wealth or made aggrandizement by constructing shops in Jamia Masjid (Srinagar) area or misappropriated through the agencies of Auqaf Trusts any financial resources as attributed by the Indian media.
“In 1992, I built six shops in Lal Bazaar area and the rentals from which go to my bank account. My other source of income is earnings through Nikah ceremonies, which I preside over, and through waaz and tabligh majalis where I deliver religious sermons and through gifts I receive in cash and kind from my murideen (disciples). I have no other source of income or properties other than what I have mentioned, anywhere in the world,” he said.
