Uri, March 9 : “Apni Party President Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari on Thursday urged New Delhi to hold assembly polls immediately in Jammu and Kashmir and restore its statehood and let democracy flourish in this part of the country.

He said that the people of J&K should not be deprived of the rights that are available to the citizens in other parts of the country,” a press note said.

According to the press note, Apni Party President was addressing a  public rally in the constituency of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, wherein the residents and party cadre gave him a warm welcome on his arrival at the rally venue in Boniyar Uri.

He added, “As you know that Apni Party was launched post-August 5, 2019, occurrences. It was the time when there was absolute chaos in the entire Jammu and Kashmir due to the abrogation of Article 370 and the snatching of J&K’s statehood. At that time people were apprehensive about their future as they thought that J&K might lose its demography, and eventually, people here will lose their exclusive rights to land and employment opportunities. At that time thousands of youngsters were under detention and the whole J&K was closed. The traditional leaders were either in detention or they had chosen to keep mum in the newly emerged turbulent situation. But we choose to come forward and shoulder our responsibilities at that crucial time.”

He reminded people that after the launch of the Apni Party, its leaders went to New Delhi to meet the Prime Minister and Home Minister to ensure no demographic change occurs in J&K. He said, “We made a centre to announce that there will be no demographic change here in J&K and only J&K people will have right on the agricultural land and jobs. We did it despite the fact that some miscreants spread misinformation and criticized us harshly for meeting leaders in New Delhi. Even an extreme propaganda campaign was launched against the Apni Party and its leaders. But we did not pay any heed to this propaganda because we just wanted to stand by our people at that crucial time.”

Bukhari promised the people of Uri that when Apni Party will get a mandate to form a Govt, it will ensure that all the residents get economic dividends here. He said, “This place is full of natural resources, but I know that the local people have always been deprived of the dividends of these resources. We will ensure the local youth get employment opportunities from the hydroelectric power projects and mineral exploration projects here.”

Bukhari demanded the release of jailed religious scholars Moulana Abdul Rashid Dawoodi and Mushtaq Ahmad Veeri.

The prominent party leaders who were present on this occasion included the party’s state convenor Haji Parvez, Constituency In charge Uri Choudhary Mushtaq, Qazi Mohammad Sheikh, Choudhary Rafiq Balote, Miss Shamshada Ji, Manzoor Ahmad Lone, Manzoor Ahmad Wani, Sajjad Ahmad Sheikh, Nazir Ahmad Chechi, Mohammad Miskeen, Nawaz Malik, Raja Maqbool, Mukhtar Ahmad, Khursheed Kataira, and others