SRINAGAR: The moderate separatist conglomerate Hurriyat Conference led by cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Monday proposed grand alliance to oppose parliamentary committee’s recommendation on settlement of West Pakistan Refugees (WPRs) in the State saying “such moves are fraught with dangers”.

“Hurriyat is extremely concerned over vigorous effort to meddle with the demographics of J&K to change the facts on the ground with the eventual aim of subverting the peoples’ right of self-determination and forcible integration and assimilation of the state,” said a Hurriyat spokesman after meeting of conglomerate’s executive, general council and working Committee members chaired by Mirwaiz.

He said the Hurriyat unequivocally and vehemently opposes the recommendation made by Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs to grant State’s permanent residency to WPRs. “The Hurriyat has also taken cognizance of and vehemently opposes similar proposals that have been spelled out in BJP’s Vision Document for Jammu & Kashmir released in November 2014”

Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has recommended settling WPRs in J&K and granting state citizenship to them.

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“We have resolved to reach out to all separatist parties, members of civil society and legal fraternity to launch a united, effective and sustained effort against any decision to grant J&K citizenship rights to WPRs,” Hurriyat spokesman said.

He said the conglomerate will also reach out to civil society in Jammu and Ladakh.

The hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani and other separatists groups and mainstream National Conference and Valley-based smaller parties have already opposed granting of J&K citizenship status to the WRPs and warned of agitation.

“It is the purview of Indian parliament and Government of India to grant WPRs Indian citizenship and any economic concessions or benefits it deems fit but it has no legal standing or right to grant these refugees J&K’s permanent residency or any rights related to this status, such as the right to own land or immovable property in J&K,” the spokesman said.

He said the Hurriyat executive, general council and working committee members asserted that WPRs were not permanent residents of J&K and not eligible to become permanent residents of the State. “This is a legal reality and has nothing to do with any communal mindset”.

“WPRs have no right to J&K citizenship. Similarly thousands of Tibetan Muslim refugees living in Kashmir since 1960 have also no right to J&K citizenship,” he said.

The Hurriyat spokesman said this is not a communal issue nor Jammu v/s Kashmir. “This is a Jammu AND Kashmir issue,” he said and cautioned the parties trying to divide and polarize the people of the state to desist from pursuing such dangerous agendas.

Noting that both Parliamentary Standing Committee’s recommendations and BJP’s stated policy on WPRs point to an aggressive attempt to change J&K demographics, he said, “Such moves are fraught with dangers. If carried out, such decisions will be regarded as no less than a direct frontal attack on the unique legal status of the State”.

Meanwhile, pro-independence JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik said WPRs are not part of Jammu Kashmir and will never be so in future also.

He said Kashmiris will protest against these moves at every level and step. “We will organize protests sit -in and take out procession from city centre Lal Chowk on January 16 to lodged our strong protest against the plans to settle WPRs in J&K”.

“Granting WPRs permanent citizenship of J&K is a conspiracy to destroy the existing social fabric of the State. The aim of this conspiracy is to change the demography of the state and destroy its majority Muslim status,” Malik said adding J&K people will never remain silent spectators over these “conspiracies” hatched at the behest of RSS and its allies.