Hurriyat says waving Pak flags no offence

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 3

Amid the controversy over displaying of Pakistan flags, the Hardline separatist today said waving Pakistani flags was not an offence.

“According to the state High Court ruling of 1983, the waving of Pakistan flags doesn’t come in the category of crime and hoisting of flag doesn’t amount to the waging of war against any country,” a spokesman for hardline Hurriyat Conference Ayaz Akbar said in a statement.

A recent rally of separatist Syed Ali Geelani in the Tral area of south Kashmir had sparked controversy after Pakistan flags were waved. The BJP has demanded arrest of Geelani over waving of Pakistan flags during his rally.

The Hurriyat spokesman said the activists of the Hurriyat conference only wave the party flag in the public rallies, but some enthusiastic youths “raise Pakistan flag at these movements which is not a new thing in Jammu and Kashmir because everybody in Kashmir has affection with this country.”

The spokesman also lashed out at J&K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and terms his statement “law will take its own course” as mere frustration.