Srinagar
In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the Hurriyat forum led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has expressed grave concern over the situation getting more and more repressive with each passing day in territory.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the Hurriyat forum in a statement issued in Srinagar said, day in and day out extreme laws are introduced to further curb people’s freedom and intimidate them into silence through fear of retribution.
“Sudden dismissal of Government employees without any investigation or being given a chance to be heard is part of this policy as six more government employees have been sacked by the ruling dispensation,” it said.
The statement added that as a large segment of IIOJK population is working in the government sector and these laws are meant to silence them into submission, crush their freedom of expression and speech and quell any kind of dissent”. The forum said it strongly denounces this dictatorial approach to deal with people’s aspirations.
The Hurriyat forum condemned the targeting and harassing of local media persons by the authorities.
“Local media and media houses are also continuously being targeted and harassed through raids on their homes and offices and confiscation of their equipment while many among them are not even spared arrests.
Continued raids by Indian agencies on organisations and homes of people and slapping of PSA and other harsh laws on them, picking up of youth, their arbitrary arrests constant surveillance of people continues unabated across IIOJK as a state policy, as the number of Kashmiris in jails and detention centres further swells,” it deplored.
The statement said while thousands including political leaders and activists continue to languish in jails for years without any remedy, Hurriyat forum Chairman himself is placed under arbitrary house detention for the past twenty six months now.
It said the situation in IIOJK is simmering and the people especially the youth feel suffocated, which can have serious consequences.—INP
