Srinagar: In occupied Kashmir, the Chairman of All Parties Hurriyet Conference, Syed Ali Gilani has called upon Indian civil society to come forward in a big way to demand immediate stop of use of brute force by Indian troops against innocent civilians in the territory.
Syed Ali Gilani said this while talking to an Indian delegation led by a former member of Rajya Sabha, Kamal Morarka that called on him at his residence in Srinagar. He said that Kashmir was never a part of India and it was a separate entity. Syed Ali Gilani told the delegation that if a plebiscite, as promised by the first Indian Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru, was held in Kashmir and people decided to stay with India they would have no objection to the people’s verdict, but New Delhi backtracked from its commitment with the passage of time.
Later, Kamal Morarka addressing a press conference in Srinagar termed it shameful on part of India for not even allowing octogenarian leader Syed Ali Gilani to hold a religious congregation inside his house. He said that he was shocked during his stay in Kashmir as there was no democracy, no civil rights and liberties for common people, while force was used on peaceful demonstrations to muzzle their voice. He said that despite enjoying a special status, Kashmir had become a hell due to wrong approach of the Indian government. He noted people’s anger everywhere in Kashmir, but deplored that despite knowing the reality India was still acting as an ostrich. He also rebuffed those who claim that Kashmiri boys were being bribed for pelting stones. No one, he added, will throw his life into danger for mere Rs 500. Kamal Morarka was accompanied by senior journalist Santosh Bhartiya.
Meanwhile, Hurriyet leader Zafar Akbar Butt visited the residences of illegally detained Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Aasiya Andrabi, Muhammad Qasim Fakhtoo and other Hurriyet leaders and activists and expressed solidarity with their families. Ummat-e-Islami has launched a campaign to seek release of all illegally detained Hurriyet leaders and activists from Indian jails. The Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Movement in a statement demanded the release of all political detainees.
On the other hand, global human rights defender, Human Rights Watch in a report released in New York, today, said that police in India often bypass arrest procedures and torture suspects in custody to death. At least 591 people, the report added, died in police custody between 2010 and 2015 in India.
