Srinagar
In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, a 73-year-old Kashmiri man, who was arrested last month nearly a decade after he had reportedly participated in a funeral where veteran Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Gilani had addressed mourners, has been charged under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
The septuagenarian Mohammad Yusuf Makroo, from Arwani in south Kashmir’s Islamabad district, was arrested on 24 August 2020 and detained at the Bijbehara police station. He was transferred to the district jail Islamabad on September 24. He has been charged for addressing the said gathering along with Syed Ali Gilani.
According to the investigation report filed by the police back then, Syed Ali Gilani and Mohammad Yusuf Makroo had gathered people in the Arwani village of Bijbehara and directed the people to provide support to the Hurriyat for the freedom of Jammu and Kashmir.
Speaking to media men over phone, moments before being transferred to the district jail on September 24, Makroo said that he was unaware that a First Information Report (FIR) was registered in the incident, which he described to be the condolence meeting of a senior member of the now-banned Jamaat-e-Islami, Ghulam Malik. “[I was told] you have an FIR from 2011. I asked them what it was about. They said that Gilani sahab had delivered a speech and so have you,” he said. “It was beyond my comprehension that I will be [jailed].”
Makroo said that as Gilani arrived at another condolence meeting, local youth had gathered and Gilani had then addressed them. Gilani sahab had come to Ghulam Malik’s condolence meeting, said Makroo, adding as far as he remembered, some other youth had also been martyred by the Indian troops and Gilani had come to offer their funeral prayers as well.—KMS
