Jailed senior APHC leader Nayeem Ahmed Khan has strongly condemned the ongoing arrest spree and revival of Indian army-backed terrorist gangs Village Defense Committees in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
In his message from New Delhi’s Tihar Jail, Nayeem Ahmad Khan while referring to the detention of several youth by Indian police from Ganderbal and Pulwama districts said the arrest spree is part of the Modi regime’s repressive policy to instill a sense of fear and insecurity amongst the Kashmiri people.
He said that Indian authorities were involved in the ruthless suppression of dissent by the excessive use of power in the territory. Khan, who along with other Hurriyat leaders is languishing in Tihar jail for the past couple of years, made a passionate appeal to the international human rights organizations to take concrete steps to stop violence and bloodshed in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The APHC leader also voiced his grave concern over the Indian government’s decision to revive Village Defence Committees (VDCs), saying that the revival of the VDCs was part of the BJP government’s divisive agenda aimed at pitching one community against the other. He said that the decision was bound to drive a wedge between the communities as the VDC members have been found grossly involved in the rights abuses, victimization, and initiating communal violence, especially in the Hindu-dominated areas of Jammu.
Nayeem Ahmed Khan said that a number of VDCs who were recently recruited on a communal basis have been found guilty of extrajudicial killings, assaults, and other abuses.
APHC leaders Jameel Ahmad Mir and Dr Musaib Ahmad in a joint statement while condemning the killing of two civilians including a girl in a grenade blast in busy market of Amira Kadal in Srinagar said it is handiwork of Indian army and agencies to harass people and defame the ongoing freedom struggle. They paid rich tributes to martyrs and expressed solidarity with the victim families. The leader said that the fascist Indian regime led by Narendra Modi has crossed all limits of state terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.—KMS
