In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, people staged a protest demonstration in Srinagar, today, against the authorities’ order allowing the sale of beer at departmental stores in urban areas.
The protesters including women hit the streets of the Srinagar city holding placards asking the IIOJK administration to withdraw the order.
“BJP does not talk of issues that will bring some respite to Kashmir, It brings orders that are to merely hurt the sentiments of Muslims,” the protesters said.
A demonstrator said unemployment is growing in IIOJK like never before while Indian Home Minister comes to the territory and picks up issues that do no good for Kashmiris. In Modi’s Kashmir, there is no space for peaceful demonstrations, they choke every voice with brute force, he said moments before he was arrested by the Indian police.
Meanwhile, Muttahida Majlis-e-Ulema, an umbrella organization of several religious scholars in IIOJK, condemned the move and demanded the immediate withdrawal of the order.
The Friday sermons in several mosques of the Kashmir Valley reverberated with slogans demanding immediate withdrawal of the order.
“We have fought such tactics in the past. No throne is as powerful as the mosque pulpit. We have and will fight any order against the basic fundamentals of Islam. We are not seeking a ban on the sale of alcohol in Delhi. But in a Muslim-majority region, we shall not allow such absurd orders to take a practical shape,” a cleric addressing the Friday gathering at Jamia Masjid in Islamabad town said.
Similarly, in several parts of Srinagar, Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam and other districts, the religious scholars demanded immediate withdrawal of the order.—KMS
