Srinagar
In occupied Kashmir, Indian police used brute force and fired teargas shells after people held funeral prayers in absentia for a martyred youth, Bilal Ahmed, in Narbal area of Pulwama district.
The mourners also shouted full throated pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. Bilal Ahmed along with two other youth was martyred by Indian troops during a cordon and search operation in Qazigund area of Kulgam district. Indian police took into its possession the dead bodies of the martyred youth and buried them at Sheeri in Baramulla district, denying the families performing the last rituals of the slain youth.
Meanwhile, Indian troops continued their violent cordon and search operations in Bandipora, Kupwara, Baramulla, Shopian, Islamabad, Kulgam and Pulwama districts of the Kashmir Valley and several districts of Jammu region.
Hundreds of Kashmiris, stranded in south Goa, India, have sought evacuation.
About 200 people including 40 families with 20 Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) children under the age of 10 are residing in Palolem Canacona, South Goa.
Talking to media men they said that they were badly hit with the coronavirus epidemic. They said they are labour class in Goa who always come here for earning to feed their families. As this epidemic is making difficulty in every part of the world so is here, they said.
The stranded Kashmiris said, “We have no food and no means to keep our lives safe as here everything has been closed and thus making us very hard to live our lives with basic amenities of life.”
“We have followed the lockdown since March 24 in letter and spirit till now but since last one week due to soaring heat and humidity it is getting unbearable for us to carry on,” they said.
We had already booked different flights from March 27–31 but flights were cancelled due to the lockdown, they added.
Meanwhile, the students from occupied Kashmir, stranded at Dehradun, the capital of the Indian state of Uttarakhand, are facing severe problems and want to go back home.
Talking to media men, they said that they wanted to go to their homes as soon as possible. They deplored that the authorities in occupied Kashmir are only approaching those stuck at Punjab or Himachal Pradesh in India and not approaching those who are stuck at Uttarakhand.—KMS
