Corona new tool for India to persecute Kashmiris: Wani

ISLAMABAD Hurriyat leader and senior vice Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir National Front (JKNF), Altaf Hussain Wani has expressed grave concern over the stepped-up human rights violations and wanton killing of Kashmiri youth by the Indian occupational forces in occupied Kashmir. In a statement issued in Islamabad on Sunday, the JKNF leader said, “The trigger happy Indian occupation forces deployed in length and breadth of the valley have turned the restive region into a killing field where innocent civilians are being killed ruthlessly day in and day out”. “The killing of Kashmiri youths has become a new norm for occupation forces who enjoy a culture of impunity under various black laws enforced in the disputed territory,” he added. Altaf Hussain Wani pointed out that the exemption from prosecution provided to military personnel under a regime of black laws was a major source of rampant rights violations in the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Citing the incidents of violence and vandalizing of public properties by the Indian forces he said, “The people of Kashmir who have endured eightmonth long suffocating military siege and information blockade are now being subjected to collective punishment by India”. At a time when civilized world is hectically engaged in a war against COVID-19 he berated that the socalled world’s largest democracy is remorselessly hatching conspiracy to subjugate Kashmiris who have rejected the India’s imperialistic agenda aimed at reducing Muslims into a minority. “The coronavirus has become a new tool for the occupation authorities to persecute Kashmiris,” he said. In order to divert the world attention away from the simmering situation in the held territory the JKNF leader said that India has deliberately escalated tensions on the line of control (LoC). He thanked Pakistan for highlighting the plight of Kashmiris at the UN Human Rights Council.—KMS