Amritsar (December 01, 2010): Dal Khalsa expressed its deep concern at the registration of a ‘sedition’ case against veteran Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Arundhati Roy, Prof SAR Geelani, Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain, Sujato Bhadra, Varavara Rao and Shuddhabrata Sengupta by the Delhi Police on the direction of Metropolitan Magistrate Navita Kumari Bagha.

Pertinently, the police have slapped Sections 124-A (sedition), 153-A (promoting enmity between two communities) and 153-B (assertion against national integration) against 7 persons for speaking in favour of Kashmir’s independence at a convention held on 21 October titled “Azadi: The Only Way”.

Party head H S Dhami and secretary for political affairs Kanwarpal Singh said they were distressed that surreptitious back-door attempts were consistently being made by the Indian establishment to muzzle voices of dissent by simply branding them as ‘seditious’. “The role of the BJP and its offshoots in upping the ante in this case is highly condemnable”.

To extend solidarity with Kashmiri’s and pledge to stand with them in their just struggle, “we too participated and spoke at Delhi convention”, they said.

Dal Khalsa, which is struggling for Punjab’s independence, strongly believes that freedom of speech and expression was an inalienable fundamental right guaranteed to all citizens including those who seek right to self-determination, said they.

“The Kashmir issue is an internationally acclaimed dispute which has a complex history going back decades”, they pointed out. The future of the people of Kashmir, presently living under the dispensation of India in the State of Jammu and Kashmir has to be decided through a plebiscite under the supervision of the United Nations as accepted by the Nehru-led Indian government too.

We strongly demand that instead of trying to gag the voices of sanity and justice through repressive means or circumvent the same through judicial means, the Government of India should come forthwith in addressing the most burning political issue.