Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee continued its chain hunger strike for the second consecutive day on Monday and said that the party has no option but to fight for the basic rights and identity of people of J-K.
The party began the chain hunger strike here on Sunday under its ‘Hamari Riyasat Hamara Haq’ campaign to press for the restoration of statehood to the Union Territory (UT).
“The Congress has no option but to fight for the basic rights and identity of people of Jammu and Kashmir, and it’s our moral and political duty to fight for the people,” J-K Congress president Tareeq Hameed Karra told reporters here.
Karra, who led the strike along with senior party leadership at the Congress headquarters at Sheedi Chowk here, said that the party is determined to fight for the restoration of statehood, which is the basic right and identity of the 1.40 crore citizens of J-K.
“We are not demanding anything new except what was promised to us by the Modi government, time to time in six years and it is already overdue, which is being denied arbitrarily and undemocratically,” he said.
Led by the Congress’ Udhampur district coordinator Thakur Balbir Singh, a large number of party leaders and workers of the district on Monday held a day-long dharna and hunger strike in front of the party headquarters here. They raised slogans “Hamari Riyasat Hamara Haq”, “restore full statehood” and “statehood is the right of 1.40 crore of J-K residents”.
Karra lauded the Congress cadres in both regions of Jammu and Kashmir for coming to the respective headquarters for continuing the hunger strike every day till further instructions.
Working president Raman Bhalla lashed out at the Modi government for the betrayal of the people of Jammu and Kashmir for the past six years.
He said that the BJP wanted to rule by proxy and loot the resources of J-K and it deliberately downgraded the historical Dogra state.
“We shall continue our struggle for the restoration of statehood till it is achieved. We shall intensify the struggle further,” he added.
