Srinagar: In occupied Kashmir, the All Parties Hurriyet Conference Chairman, Syed Ali Gilani, and other Hurriyet leaders including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmed Shah and Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi Al-Safvi have strongly condemned the threat statements of BJP leaders, Ram Madhav and Chander Prakash Ganga, against the Kashmiri people.
The BJP General Secretary, Ram Madhav, had complimented an Indian Army officer responsible for tying a youth to an army jeep’s bonnet in occupied Kashmir saying that “everything is fair in love and warâ€. Chander Prakash Ganga, the puppet Minister for Industries in the occupied territory, had stated that the Kashmiri youth who pelt stones on Indian forces should be dealt with bullets.
The Hurriyet leaders in their statements said that Indian rulers had declared a war against the Kashmiris and the remarks of BJP leaders would encourage the Indian forces’ personnel to carry out more massacres in the territory. They said that the Kashmiri people had been facing the worst kind of Indian state terrorism for the past almost seven decades with exemplary courage and such intimidations could not subdue their spirit for freedom from Indian bondage. They appealed to the UN and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to take cognizance of threat statements of BJP leaders and initiate measures to save the Kashmiris from Indian brutalities.
Other Hurriyet leaders and organizations including Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Yousuf Naqash, Farida Bahenji, Zamruda Habib, Bilal Siddiqui, Barrister Abdul Majeed Tramboo, Muhammad Ramzan Khan, Shabbir Ahmad Dar, Muhammad Iqbal Mir, Muhammad Ahsan Untoo, Kashmir High Court Bar Association and Jamaat-e-Islami of occupied Kashmir in their statements in Srinagar also took strong exception to the assertions of Ram Madhav and Chander Prakash Ganga.
Meanwhile, protest shutdown was observed in Bijbehara area of Islamabad district, today, against the severe thrashing of a boy by Indian Army personnel last evening. The puppet authorities continued to suspend the class work in schools, colleges and universities across the Kashmir Valley for the fifth successive day, today, to prevent students from staging demonstrations against highhandedness of Indian forces.
Five people including a minor girl were injured when Hindu fanatics attacked a nomad family moving with its livestock near Talwara area in Reasi district. Indian police personnel in their continued nocturnal raids have arrested dozens of youth in various areas of Shopian during the past few days.
A group of influential Indian citizens in a statement issued in New Delhi urged the Indian government to settle the Kashmir dispute through dialogue saying that military measures could not resolve the lingering dispute. It said that Kashmir was a political issue that needed a political solution. The statement was signed by Yashwant Sinha, Justice (retd) A P Shah, Wajahat Habibullah, Salman Haidar, Nirupama Rao, Aruna Roy, Shekhar Gupta, Prem Shankar Jha, Ramachandra Guha, S Irfan Habib, Kapil Kak, Badri Raina, John Dayal, Bharat Bhushan and Sushobha Barve.