Srinagar
In occupied Kashmir, the authorities have booked three more youth under draconian law, Public Safety Act.
The occupation authorities slapped the black law on the youth, Nisar Ahmed Rathar, Mubarak Ahmed Dar and Faheem Ahmed Sofi. Nisar Ahmed Rathar was shifted to Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu while Mubarak Dar and Faheem Sofi were lodged at sub-jail Mattan in Islamabad district. Under the PSA a person can be kept under detention for upto two years without trial.
Thousands of Kashmiris remain illegally detained in different jails of India and occupied Kashmir and most of them were arrested after 5th August, 2019 when India revoked the special status of the occupied territory and placed it under military siege. Over 750 of the Kashmiri detainees have been booked under the PSA. Prominent among those slapped with the black law include Kashmir High Court Bar Association President Mian Abdul Qayoom, Jamaat-e-Islami chief Dr Abdul Hameed Fayaz, Jamiat Ahle Hadith leader Maulana Mushtaq Ahmed Veeri, and Hurriyat leaders, Masarrat Aalam Butt, Aasiya Andrabi, Ghulam Ahmed Gulzar, Fehmeeda Sofi, Naheeda Nasreen, Qazi Yasir Ahmed, Maulana Sarjaan Barkati, Muhammad Yasin Attai, and trade leader, Muhammad Yasin Khan.
Meanwhile, Indian troops arrested a youth identified as Waseem Bashir during a cordon and search operation in Monghama area of Pulwama district, last night. The troops have dubbed the arrested youth as over-ground worker of mujahideen.
Informed sources in Srinagar have revealed a nefarious plan of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allot 6000-acre land in occupied Kashmir to the goons of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the name of investment to alter the demographic composition of the territory. The Modi government has decided to allocate 20,000 kanals of land to Hindu investors at the rate of Re 1 per kanal.
The land will be given from 18 cities of the occupied valley for industry, IT park and tourism purpose. Pertinently, two thousand Kashmiri traders have been deprived of their lands through banks, and business community has suffered losses of $ 2.5 billion since 5th August, 2019.
The Acting Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Abdul Hameed Butt, in a statement issued in Srinagar expressed serious concern over the arrest of a woman and her father by Indian forces during a house raid in Hakripora area of Pulwama district.
On the other hand, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom is considering downgrading India a notch from “Tier II” to “Tier I” or “countries with particular concern” with respect to religious freedom. The consideration comes after India registered the largest decline in its political rights and civil liberties score among the 25 most populous democracies in the annual report of Washington-based pro-democracy think-tank Freedom House.
The report attributed this to Modi government’s “alarming departures from democratic norms”. It also declined Kashmir’s status from “Partly Free” to “Not Free”.—KMS
