Srinagar: In occupied Kashmir, complete shutdown was observed, today, to mark the fourth martyrdom anniversary of prominent Kashmiri martyr, Muhammad Afzal Guru.
Call for the strike was given by the joint resistance leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik to demand the mortal remains of prominent martyred liberation leaders Muhammad Maqbool Butt and Muhammad Afzal Guru. The two leaders remain buried in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail. All shops and business establishments remained closed while traffic was off the road in the territory.
Muhammad Afzal Guru was hanged by India in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail on this day in 2013 while Muhammad Maqbool Butt was sent to the gallows in the same jail on 11th February in 1984.
Meanwhile, the puppet authorities imposed curfew in many areas of Srinagar and strict restrictions in other towns, deploying Indian troops and police personnel in strength, to prevent people from staging demonstrations against the unjustified hanging of Muhammad Afzal Guru and Muhammad Maqbool Butt. Indian police detained Hurriyet leaders including Syed Ali Gilani, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Ashraf Laya, Zafar Akbar Butt, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza, Qazi Yasir, Umar Aadil Dar and Muhammad Yasin Attai in their residences or police stations to prevent them from leading the protests. The police also raided the house of Hurriyet leader, Abdul Rasheed Lone, in Srinagar and harassed his family members. The police even arrested member of the so-called Kashmir Assembly, Engineer Abdur Rasheed in Handwara to foil his march towards Town Hall Kupwara where he was scheduled to lead a programme to commemorate the anniversary of Afzal Guru.
The puppet authorities made heavy deployment of Indian forces’ personnel in Sopore to stop people from visiting the family of Muhammad Afzal Guru in Doabgah area of the town. Despite restrictions, a large number of people and delegations of Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party and Jammu and Kashmir Salvation Movement succeeded in reaching Doabgah and participated in a condolence meet organized for Afzal Guru. The All Parties Hurriyet Conference leader, Farida Bahenji, led a procession in Srinagar demanding transfer of the bodies of Muhammad Maqbool Butt and Muhammad Afzal Guru from Tihar Jail to the occupied territory for proper burial.
On the other hand, a march will be conducted towards the UN office at Sonawar in Srinagar, tomorrow, to urge the World Body to impress upon India to shift the mortal remains of the martyred leaders to occupied Kashmir.
The APHC Chairman, Syed Ali Gilani, and senior leaders, Shabbir Ahmed Shah and Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi Al-Safvi in their statements condemned the arrest of dozens of youth from Baramulla, Kupwara and other areas of occupied Kashmir. They said that India had converted the territory into a big jail where people were denied all basic freedoms.
