BJP youth wing seeks arrest of Mirwaiz

NEW DELHI - Alleging that Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq had made anti-India remarks Thursday at a seminar in Chandigarh, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) demanded his arrest and prosecution on charges of treason.

In a statement, BJYM president Anurag Thakur said that the International Democratic Party organised a seminar in which Mirwaiz, who was the main speaker, made anti-India remarks. The BJYM, the youth wing of the BJP, said its workers protested the remarks but police used force as a result of which some of them sustained injuries.

He said the police also arrested some BJYM workers.

Condemning the remarks of Mirwaiz, Thakur, a Lok Sabha MP, said that an anti-India campaign was being run by separatists all over the country but the central government was displaying helplessness.

He accused the central government of adopting an attitude of gross negligence in respect of a sensitive issue of the country’s security due to which separatists were getting emboldened.

He demanded that the government “arrest Mirwaiz and prosecute him for treason”.

Thakur said that another Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani had made anti-India remarks at a seminar in Delhi in October which was also protested by BJYM workers.