Srinagar
In occupied Kashmir, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir has said that India cannot hide the truth about the territory by arranging guided visits of Delhi-based envoys.
Tehreek-e-Hurriyat said this while commenting on a two-day visit by a 17-member delegation of Delhi-based envoys of different countries to the occupied territory. The Hurriyat organization in a statement issued in Srinagar, today, said if the situation in occupied Kashmir is as normal as India claims, then New Delhi should allow envoys to meet common people, members of civil society, journalists, politicians and let them visit jails and detention centers.
On reports about the formation of a so-called third front by certain political leaders in connivance with BJP, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat said that it would be betrayal of martyrs’ blood, and the people of Kashmir would not tolerate any such move.
Kashmir based political parties, Peoples Democratic Party and National Conference, in their statements issued in Srinagar termed the visit of envoys by the Indian government as an attempt to endorse its claim of normalcy in the territory.
Meanwhile, the grim situation on ground continues to prevail on the 158th day of military siege and lockdown, today, with consumers complaining of the growing shortage of daily commodities particularly in the Kashmir Valley and Muslim majority areas of Jammu region.
A Srinagar-based family whose teenage son was killed by Indian troops hours after India scrapped Kashmir’s special status on August 5, last year, had to move the High Court of the territory to prove that their son is dead. According to the family, the troops chased Osaib few miles away from his house, captured him and smashed his head with their gun butts before throwing him into Jhelum river. In the face of internet shutdown and media gag, the authorities refused to acknowledge his death.
The Kashmir Council Europe arranged a camp in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, today, to sensitize the people of Europe about endless brutalities by Indian occupational forces in occupied Kashmir. The one-day camp was organized in front of EU’s External Action Service in Brussels. Brochures concerning the ongoing siege and other human rights violations in occupied Kashmir were distributed on the occasion.
A ‘Free Kashmir’ poster was displaced during a protest in Delhi University against the violent attack on students of Jawaharlal Nehru University in the Indian capital. The students of St Stephens College of Delhi University boycotted their classes and took part in the massive protest to show their solidarity to the JNU students. As pictures of the protest surfaced, a student was seen holding a “Kashmir Aazad” poster. The students also chanted freedom slogans.—KMS
