Srinagar
In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops during their continued violent crackdown operations have arrested over 50 youth including women in different areas of the territory.
The troops arrested these youth during house raids and cordon and search operations in Srinagar, Badgam, Ganderbal, Kupwara, Baramulla, Bandipore, Pulwama, Shopian, Islamabad, Kulgam, Ramban, Kishtwar, Doda, Rajouri and Poonch districts during the last two weeks. The residents of these areas said the forces’ personnel during the operations barge into residential houses, harass the inmates, ransack the household goods and arrest youth on fake charges.
The Chairman of Tehreek-e-Muzahamat, Bilal Siddiqi, in a statement in Srinagar denounced the arrest spree unleashed by the Indian forces in occupied Kashmir. He said that the troops had unleashed a reign of terror and were working systematically to inflict mental, physical and emotional damage to the people of Kashmir for their uncompromising and unflinching defiance of illegal occupation by India.
Meanwhile, the Indian authorities slapped draconian law Public Safety Act for the third time in a row against liberation activist, Zahoor Ahmed Butt. Zahoor Butt, the younger brother of the prominent martyred Kashmiri leader, Muhammad Maqbool Butt, was recently brought to Kashmir from Rajasthan jail in India. After slapping fresh PSA, the authorities lodged him at Keribal jail in Islamabad district.
The people in Jammu have been asked through posters to keep away from extremist Hindu organisations including Bharatiya Janata Party, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Shiv Sena. The posters were pasted by Jammu and Kashmir Youth Movement on the signboard of Srinagar-Jammu Highway.
The illegally detained Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Muhammad Yasin Malik, could not be presented before a TADA court in Jammu through video conferencing in old false cases due to illness. The authorities of New Delhi’s Tihar Jail told the court that Muhammad Yasin Malik’s statement could not be recorded through video conferencing as he is undergoing treatment at the jail hospital. The jail administration further told the court that Yasin Malik was on hunger strike and that he was taken to the hospital after his health deteriorated. The JKLF leaders, Saleem Haroon, Sajid Siddiqi, Khawaja Manzoor Ahmed Chishti and Muhammad Rafiq Dar addressing a press conference in Islamabad, today, expressed deep concern over the already deteriorated health of Muhammad Yasin Malik. They demanded immediate and unconditional release of all illegally detained Kashmiris including Yasin Malik.
On the other hand, the APHC-AJK chapter at a meeting in Islamabad discussed the prevailing situation of occupied Kashmir. The Hurriyat leaders deliberated upon important proposals to promote the ongoing liberation movement and thwart India’s plan of ending the Muslim identity of the territory.—KMS
