Anti-India protests break out across held Kashmir
Observer Report
Srinagar
Former Kashmir Chief Ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday refused to accept the Indian government’s conditions for their release. According to the media reports, Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik offered to release the both political figures on the condition of staying silent and not rallying with their supporters against India‘s decision to scrap the special status of the occupied Kashmir.
The governor asserted that if they don’t mobilize people to protest against the abrogation of Article 370 and 35-A, they can go to their homes. However, Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah rejected the offer in clear words. Both leaders have been in detention since August 5.
Meanwhile, thousands of Kashmiris defying curfew and other restrictions on Tuesday took to streets in South, North and central Kashmir to hold protest against the latest onslaught and imposition of Hindu culture on the people of occupied valley.
Scores of people were injured when occupational forces fired bullets, pellets and teargas shells on protesters in Soura area of Srinagar. A handicrafts store owner, Sameer Wani, told media men that it was a ‘do-or-die’ situation for Kashmiris amid deliberate destruction of their businesses and trampling of basic rights by the occupational forces.
Many protesters said that they were worried about their teenage sons, who were abducted by the troops during nocturnal raids.
Meanwhile, people are facing severe shortage of food, medicines and other commodities due to unabated curfew and communication blockade, which entered the 23rd consecutive day, Tuesday, in the Kashmir valley. Markets and schools are shut while all internet and communication services including landline phone, mobile and TV channels are closed in Kashmir valley and five districts of Jammu region. Local newspapers are offline while most of them failed to bring out their print editions.
The authorities arrested a doctor, Omar Salim, who is an urologist at the Government Medical College, Srinagar, a day after he informed the media about the terrible health crisis in Kashmir because of long-drawn clampdown by India in the territory. Unidentified gunmen abducted a man and subsequently killed him in Tral area of Pulwama district.
Samajwadi Party leader, Akhilesh Yadav, addressing a press conference in Lucknow hit out at the Indian government for restricting the movement of people in Jammu and Kashmir saying what happened in Kashmir can also happen to the people of Uttar Pradesh.
