NEW DELHI The Amnesty International while reacting to the use of brutal force by India on people during the lockdown against coronavirus has said that Indian state machinery has become a larger threat than the COVID-19 pandemic. Amnesty International India Executive Director Avinash Kumar in a statement in New Delhi called upon the Indian government to ensure that ‘insensitivity and brute force be replaced by people-friendly measures in battling the pandemic.’ The Human Rights Watch South Asia Director Meenakshi Ganguly also said that the Indian government’s responsibility to protect its people from the outbreak should not come at the cost of human rights violations. She said that police actions had resulted in abuses against people in need. In occupied Kashmir, Hurriyat leaders including Shabbir Ahmad Dar, Bilal Ahmad Siddiqui and Abdul Hameed Butt in their separate statements paid glowing tributes to the prominent Kashmiri martyrs Ashfaq Majeed Wani, Dr Abdul Ahad Guru, Shabbir Ahmad Siddiqui and Jaleel Ahmed Andrabi on their martyrdom anniversaries. The leaders maintained the martyrs were great sons of soil who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of Jammu and Kashmir from Indian subjugation. They reiterated the Kashmiris’ resolve to take the martyrs’ mission to its logical conclusion against all odds. Indian troops martyred Ashfaq Majeed Wani in March 1990, Jaleel Andrabi and Shabbir Siddiqui in March 1996 and Dr Abdul Ahad Guru in April 1992. The Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement Chairman Mir Shahid Saleem in a statement in Jammu urged the United Nations and the international community to secure the release of Hurriyat leaders and activists in view of the widespread of coronavirus. Meanwhile, seven more COVID positive cases were detected, today, taking the toll of such cases to 58 in the entire occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The authorities confirmed that as many as 33 cases had been reported from the Kashmir valley, 12 from Jammu and 13 from Ladakh region. As the prisoners are being released worldwide to protect them from the rising cases of coronavirus, the Indian authorities in occupied Kashmir arrested 627 more people in the name of preventive measures against the deadly virus.—KMS
