Shutdown, detention of Hurriyet leaders continue
Srinagar: In occupied Kashmir, scores of people were injured when Indian troops fired pellets, bullets and teargas shells to prevent people from staging anti-India demonstrations and conducting marches towards district headquarters in the territory.
Call for the marches was given by the joint resistance leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik to protest against Indian illegal occupation, killing of innocent civilians and other brutalities by Indian forces in the Kashmir Valley.
The puppet authorities deployed Indian troops and police personnel in strength all across the Valley to stop people from conducting the marches. The authorities also sealed Srinagar’s historic Jamia Masjid disallowing people from offering Juma prayers on 17th successive Friday. However, people took to the streets in Srinagar, Badgam, Ganderbal, Palhallan, Baramulla, Bandipora, Kupwara, Islamabad, Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam and other areas and tried to conduct the marches. They shouted pro-Pakistan, pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. They also waved Pakistani flags. The protesters blocked Srinagar-Baramulla highway. Indian troops and police personnel subjected the demonstrators to brute force at various places injuring several of them.
Meanwhile, the occupation authorities continued to put Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi Al-Safvi, Masarrat Aalam Butt, Aasiya Andrabi, Bilal Siddiqui, Syed Bashir Andrabi, Zafar Akbar Butt, Hilal Ahmed War and other Hurriyet leaders under house arrest or in police custody to prevent them from leading the marches.
Complete shutdown continued on 119th consecutive day, today, against the civilian killings and other brutalities of Indian forces in the Valley. The inmates lodged in Baramulla jail continued their hunger strike on the second day against the highhandedness of the prison authorities.
On the other hand, the illegally detained Chairman of Muslim Deeni Mahaz, Dr Muhammad Qasim Fakhtoo, in a statement in Srinagar said that the alliance forged among Hurriyet leaders, Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik six months ago needed to be more strengthened and made permanent.
The Deputy Grand Mufti of occupied Kashmir, Nasir-ul-Islam, chairing a meeting of the Muslim Personal Law Board in Srinagar, expressing concern over the burning of school buildings said that Indian secret agencies were involved in these incidents to malign the ongoing freedom movement.
The Chairman of Muslim Action Committee Jammu, Muhammad Sharif Sartaj, in a statement in Jammu said that India was victimizing the Kashmiri people for demanding their right to self-determination.
The Shoora Committee Kishtwar has decided to organize special prayers at Jamia Masjid in the town after Zuhr prayers, tomorrow, to pay tributes to the Jammu martyrs of 1947.
