International Youth Day celebrations

Srinagar: Stating that the Kashmiri youth have been the worst victims of oppressive policies adopted by the ruling National Conference in last over five and a half years, Syed Altaf Bukhari PDP senior leader and party candidate for Amirakadal constituency on Tuesday said that Kashmiri youth particularly teenagers were pushed to wall by none other than the chief minister of the state who incidentally happens to be a youth.
Addressing a youth meeting on International Youth Day at his office in Sheikh Bagh here, Bukhari said the day provides an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the promise and power of young people besides empowering them to change their community, their country and the world. “Unfortunately, the youth of Kashmir have witnessed a dark period in last over five years under National Conference led government. Teenagers who should have been in schools were being imprisoned under false and frivolous cases. Besides rampant arrests, tortures, harassment and intimidation, the youth of the Valley have seen a period of blood and gore. What rubbed salt to the injuries of youth is the justification given by the present dispensation that it adopted these oppressive policies for maintaining law and order,” the PDP leader observed.
He said since the day ruling National Conference took over the reign of State; hundreds of people have lost their lives, with majority of them being innocent youth. “Around 99 percent of the persons booked under PSAs and against whom FIRs were lodged are also youth. Now the youth of the State want a change and they understand that no party other than the PDP can serve them better through its youth oriented policies and programmes,” Bukhari remarked.
The PDP candidate for Amirakadal constituency observed that no serious efforts were made by the present dispensation to understand the anger and growing frustration of youth and instead the NC-led government created a more hostile system for the unemployed youth who are forced to go from pillar to post in pursuit of their careers.
Ridiculing the ‘hand holding of the youth’, slogan given by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the PDP senior leader said that instead of hand holding, Omar led government has always been busy in handcuffing of the youth in last over five and half years of the government. “The youth of the State especially in Kashmir are still to reconcile after facing humiliating situations and inhuman treatment by the ruling National Conference,” Bukhari said. He said that unemployment, lack of sports infrastructure, recreational facilities both in urban and rural areas have added to the depressing situation for the youth of the state.