In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops and police have intensified the reign of terror by stepping up their cordon and search operations and house raids to suppress the Kashmiris’ ongoing freedom movement.
Indian troops, paramilitary and police personnel have increased their search operations and house raids in the name of security measures following the recent killing of a policeman and injuring of two others in an attack by unknown gunmen in Lal Bazaar area of Srinagar. The residents of many areas of Srinagar, Badgam, Ganderbal, Kupwara, Baramulla, Islamabad, Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam, Doda, Kishtwar, Poonch, Rajouri and Kathua districts told the media that the Indian forces’ personnel have made their life a hell. They said that during the operations and house raids, Indian troops and policemen barge into their houses, harass the inmates including women and even vandalize the household goods. Indian forces’ personnel have been deployed in strength in several areas of Srinagar city while checking of vehicles and frisking of people is being done, causing immense inconvenience to commuters and pedestrians.
The All Parties Hurriyat Conference spokesman in a statement issued in Srinagar maintained that no amount of Indian state terrorism can subdue the Kashmiris’ freedom sentiment and they will continue their struggle till it reached its logical conclusion. He appealed to the international community to hold India accountable for its war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied territory.
Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front in a statement issued in Srinagar said illegally detained party Chairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik, has written a letter to the Indian government demanding a fair trial and his physical appearance in over three decades-old baseless cases pending against him in Jammu’s TADA Court. The statement said that Yasin Malik during an online hearing of one of these cases in the court yesterday told the Judge that he has written in the letter that if his demands are not met then he will start an indefinite hunger strike in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail from 22nd of this month against this unjust behavior of the Indian government and judiciary.
People Democratic Party President, Mehbooba Mufti, speaking at a function in Srinagar said the BJP led Indian government by allowing people to go on the Amarnath Yatra in large numbers has turned the pilgrimage into a political issue instead of letting it stay a religious affair. She added that the huge Yatra has now become a big problem for the people living in south Kashmir.
On the other hand, the joint Opposition candidate for the Indian Presidential election, Yashwant Sinha, has said that the Indian democracy was in grave danger, and every institution of democratic governance was being subverted by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Addressing the meeting of the Congress and other Opposition members of Indian Parliament and Assam’s Legislative Assembly in Guwahati, he said that to win elections, the BJP has embarked on an evil design to communally polarise India’s multi-faith society.—KMS
