Srinagar
In occupied Kashmir, a protest demonstration was held in Jammu, Tuesday, against revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status by India, ongoing military siege and Internet gag in the Kashmir valley and massacre of innocent Muslims at the hands of Hindu extremists in New Delhi.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the protest was jointly organized by Muslim, Sikh and Dalit organizations outside Press Club in Jammu. While condemning the suppression of democratic rights of the Kashmiri people by Indian forces, the protesters demanded restoration of Kashmir’s special status, release of all political detainees and an end to the military lockdown in the territory. Prominent among those who attended the protest march included Shaikh Abdur Rehman, ID Khajuria, Narender Singh Khalsa and Mir Shahid Saleem.
Kashmiri people have been asked through posters pasted on streets, bridges and buildings in Srinagar and other parts of the territory to treat the local collaborators of India like Altaf Bukhari and Muzaffar Baig as goons of RSS and BJP and boycott them and their families. The posters, published by Warseen-e-Shuhada, urged people to deal with these traitors in a tough manner wherever seen.
Hurriyat leaders Bilal Ahmad Siddiqui and Muhammad Shafi Lone in their separate statements in Srinagar called upon the international community and human rights organizations to take serious note of the repressive policies of India in the occupied territory. The Hurriyat leaders said that freedom of press and expression was gagged in the occupied territory. They asked the United Nations and international human rights organizations including Amnesty International to play their role in preventing India from committing worst human rights violations in occupied Kashmir and resolving the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.
Meanwhile, Indian authorities filed a charge-sheet against two activists of Jamaat-e-Islami identified as Muhammad Rafiq Shah and Bashir Ahmad Lone on the charge of delivering a speech at the funeral of martyred scholar, Dr Mohammad Rafi Butt, in Ganderbal in May 2018. The sleuths of India’s National Investigation Agency arrested father and daughter during a raid on their house in Pulwama.
In Geneva, the United Nations Human Rights Council through a statement submitted to the council during its ongoing 43rd session, was informed that India continues to use various forms of arbitrary detention to target protesters, political dissents and other civil society actors in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The written statement was submitted by Barrister Abdul Majeed Tramboo on behalf of a non-governmental organization International Human Rights Association of American Minorities.
According to media reports, Indian authorities have roped in a US-based multinational software company, Cisco Systems, to block access of Kashmiri youth to social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It is worth mentioning here that it is the 212th consecutive day, today, of Internet suspension in occupied Kashmir.—KMS
