Budgam, October 18: Mir Fanoon has strongly condemned the reported attack on a Delhi–Srinagar passenger bus near Kurukshetra in Haryana, in which an elderly Kashmiri passenger was reportedly injured and other passengers were left frightened.
In a statement, Mir Fanoon termed the incident deeply disturbing and said that acts of violence, intimidation and targeting of innocent passengers were unacceptable in a democratic society.
He said every Kashmiri citizen has the fundamental right to travel, work, study and live with dignity and security in every part of the country, without fear or discrimination.
Mir Fanoon urged the Haryana Government and Haryana Police to conduct a fair and impartial investigation into the incident, identify those responsible and ensure strict legal action against them in accordance with the law.
He stressed that the safety and security of Kashmiri passengers must be ensured and that no innocent citizen should be targeted or made to feel unsafe because of their regional identity.
Expressing concern over what he described as the unequal portrayal of incidents by sections of the national media, Mir Fanoon remarked that had a similar incident occurred in Kashmir, Kashmiri youth might have been labelled as “stone pelters” by sections of the national media.
He called for responsible and unbiased reporting, urging the media to uphold the principles of fairness and impartiality while covering incidents involving people from any region.
“An attack on innocent passengers is an attack on our shared humanity,” he said, adding that justice must prevail and effective measures must be taken to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.
Mir Fanoon reiterated that every citizen deserves equal protection under the law and that peace, dignity and communal harmony must be upheld across the country.