Srinagar
In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops have martyred 74 Kashmiris including 3 women and 4 young boys during the ongoing 7-month long siege and internet shutdown in the territory.
According to a report released by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service on the completion of seven months of unrelenting military lockdown, today, 7 of the martyred youth were killed in fake encounters or in custody. The report said that 943 people were critically injured in the firing by Indian troops on peaceful protesters. It said that thousands of Hurriyat leaders, activists, politicians and civil society members including APHC Chairman Syed Ali Gilani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq continue to remain under house arrest or in jails since India revoked Kashmir’s special status on 5th August, last year.
Hurriyat leaders Ghulam Muhammad Khan Sopori, Bilal Siddiqui, Zamruda Habib, Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party, Islami Tanzeem-e-Azadi and Hurriyat AJK leaders including Altaf Hussain Wani, Abdul Majeed Malik, Altaf Ahmed Butt, Zahid Ashraf and Aijaz Rehmani in their separate statements strongly denounced the arrest of a woman and her father by Indian forces in Pulwama district. The daughter, Insha Tariq, and her father Tariq Ahmad, were arrested during a house raid, jointly launched by Indian troops and sleuths of National Investigation Agency in Hakripora area of the district on Tuesday.
An anti-India protest demonstration was held outside the National Press Club, Islamabad, today. The protest was organized by the All Parties Hurriyat Conference Azad Jammu and Kashmir chapter. The participants of the protest appealed to the world human rights bodies to impress upon India to put an end to harassment of Kashmiris and their families in the occupied territory. The protest was led by former APHC-AJK Convener, Muhammad Farooq Rehmani.
The Pakistan Bar Council has strongly condemned the extension in detention period of High Court Bar Association President, Mian Abdul Qayoom,General Secretary, Ashraf Butt, and political leaders of occupied Kashmir under the draconian law, Public Safety Act. The Bar President Syed Qalb-e-Hassan, in a statement issued in Islamabad said Mian Qayoom is suffering from various ailments and needs urgent and unconditional medical treatment.
Members of UK Parliament while raising concern over anti-Muslim riots in Delhi, which claimed 47 lives, pressed the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to share the details of its engagement with the Indian government on the issue. Sikh MPs, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi and Preet Gill Kaur, are the latest UK lawmakers to join the chorus of criticism against the way the Indian government handled the Delhi carnage.—KMS
