Hizb denies issuing threat to non-state subject labourers

Srinagar, July 29 (UNI) The Hizbul Mujahideen, the single largest indigenous militant group active in Jammu and Kashmir, today denied giving any deadline to non-local labourers for leaving the Valley.

However, the outfit has put a condition to the non-state subject labourers and workers, asking them to identify criminal elements and send them back home so that they could earn their livelihood in a peaceful manner in Kashmir.

''For misdeeds of few, all non-state subjects cannot be punished,'' Hizb's Muzaffarabad based spokesman Ehsan Elahi, quoting outfit supremo Syed Salahuddin, said in a faxed statement here.

''Whosoever commits a crime whether an Army officer, soldiers, employee, Kashmiri or non-Kashmiri labourers, they have to be dealt with severely,'' he added.

The Hizb spokesman alleged that it was ''a grand conspiracy'' by the government to bring criminals masquerading as artisans, masons, and labourers to the Kashmir valley and said it was necessary to identify these people.

''It is important that these people are identified and send out from Kashmir. But, the innocent should not face any problem.'' He asked the non-local labourers to earn their livelihood with peace and satisfaction and assured them that they would not face any problem from the Hizb Mujahideen.

''They have no threat from the Hizb,'' the spokesman added.

The Hizb asked the non-locals to send back all those criminals who could be a ''potential threat'' to them.

''It is the responsibility of non-local labourers and workers to take initiative and send unwanted and criminal elements back home so that they do not face any problem,'' the spokesman said.

He said forced exodus of non-locals from Jammu and Kashmir could give communal parties an easy excuse to target Kashmiri students and traders outside the state. ''They will not only target them (Kashmiris) but also subject them to oppression,'' he added.

The spokesman said the manner in which the sex scandal case was handled last year had encouraged criminal elements. The rape of a minor in Langate was its latest example, he added.

He also called for a joint forum to ''fight cultural aggression'' to preserve ''Islamic ethos'' of Kashmir.

The spokesman asked the leadership and intellectuals to be discreet while issuing statements having long term ramifications.

He also asked news organisations not to carry telephonic statements of the Hizbul Mujahideen. ''Only the statements issued from the base camp (Muzaffarabad) or by the spokesman (Ehsan Elahi) or from field by Junaid-ul-Islam should be published,'' he added.

UNI