Census is Important

Shakeel Bakshi urge people to take part in census


'Defeat designs to portray JK Muslims in minority'
Srinagar, March 27: The Islamic Students League head, Shakeel Bakshi, Saturday urged the Kashmiri people to take part in the 2011 Census, to defeat the enemy designs aimed at portraying the Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir as a minority.
Shakeel was speaking at a seminar titled “Role of Intelligentsia in the Resolution of Kashmir Dispute”, organised by the Bar Association in the Lower Court Complex here to observe the 14th anniversary of prominent human rights activist Advocate Jaleel Andrabi, who was killed in custody by the security forces in 1996.
“I urge the people of J&K to take part in the upcoming 2011 census exercise, as in the previous census the Kashmiris - particularly Muslims - did not take part, resulting in figures that prompted them (Indian State) to claim that Muslims constitute only 66 percent of J-K population,”
Shakeel said.
“I also ask the intelligentsia of Kashmir to make people aware about the consequences of not taking part in such exercise. In the past too, militant brethren issued threats not to take part in the census exercise, but this time I urge the leadership of Kashmir and the militants to restrain from such threats and let the people take part in the census,” he urged.
He also called upon the people of Doda and Rajouri to register themselves not as Kashmiri-speaking but as Kashmiri-speaking Muslims, at this will help the larger cause. "Efforts are underway to portray the Kashmiri-speaking population of J&K as a minority. This we have seen in the previous census," he pointed out.