Kashmir

‘Four hecklers from an audience of 150+’ tweets Omar about protesters at UC Berkeley

National Conference leader and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, on Thursday, faced protests at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) where he was invited to speak. The event was named ‘Path Forward in Kashmir ‘ which was being organized by the Institute of South Asia Studies, UC Berkeley.

Omar, when he was coming out from the University of California in Berkeley after delivering a speech, was surrounded by Kashmiri Americans protesting against his speech.

“You, your father and grandfather are all war criminals,” said one of the protestors, to which Omar replied, “you are the one talking in an American accent.” Another protester who confronted Omar at the door said, “We want to take you to the International Criminal Court, right now!”

Terming the protest a “tamasha”, Omar said that four hecklers waited till the event concluded to make youtube videos.

Various journalists, academicians, researchers and scholars around the world had started an online petition against the invite of the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) to former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to speak on their campus.

ALSO READ: Online petition against Omar’s UC Berkeley visit calls him a ‘client politician’

The petition called Omar a ‘dynastic politician’ who is one of the many ‘client politicians’ India has cultivated in Kashmir to provide a civilian facade to the military occupation.

“Berkeley is wilfully providing a platform to Mr Omar Abdullah and allowing him to masquerade as the representative of the people of the occupied Kashmir, which he is clearly not,” reads the petition.

“We expect Berkeley to do their due diligence in the future and consider the repercussions of allowing client politicians such as Omar Abdullah the privilege of speaking on behalf of the people whom he does not represent.”

However, Omar, who is also the working president of the National Conference had to face protests at the venue and was confronted by protesters.

One of the protesters called him a ‘war criminal’ who should be ‘taken to the International Criminal Court.’


The Google Doc ‘Omar doesn’t represent Kashmir’ till now had 145 signatories from all around the globe.

 

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