Srinagar: In occupied Kashmir, the Chairman of All Parties Hurriyet Conference, Syed Ali Gilani has said that denying political space, suppressing genuine voices for freedom and unleashing crackdowns on pro-freedom leaders and activists are deliberate attempts on part of India to create uncertainty in the territory.
Syed Ali Gilani in a statement issued in Srinagar said that hundreds of innocent youth had been detained under frivolous charges. He said that the detainees were kept in miserable conditions where criminals were targeting them at the behest of jail authorities. The APHC Chairman urged the International Committee of Red Cross and Amnesty International to take cognizance of the plight of Kashmiri political detainees and impress upon India to shun its callous attitude and release the detainees at the earliest.
Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik in a statement in Srinagar said that puppet Chief Minister had pledged her masters in New Delhi to use more harsh tactics to crush Kashmiris’ resistance. He said despite the use of all harsh and oppressive methods, Indian rulers and their Kashmiri stooges had failed to put Kashmiris into submission and would fail to do so in future as well.
Hurriyet leaders including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Qazi Yasir, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza, Bilal Siddiqui, Javaid Ahmad Mir and Jahangir Ghani Butt said that the authorities were pursuing the policy of ruining the future of new Kashmiri generations by harassing and chasing the students and subjecting them to brute torture even in their educational institutions.
Meanwhile, complete shutdown was observed in Maisuma and adjoining areas of Srinagar, today, against highhandedness of Indian police and army. All shops and business establishments were closed and traffic was off the road in the areas.
Indian police re-arrested senior APHC leader, Masarrat Aalam Butt, after he was bailed out by a Baramulla court in a false case registered against him in 2016. He has been shifted to some undisclosed location. Masarrat Aalam Butt has been booked 34 times under the black law, Public Safety Act, since 1990.
On the other hand, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha who led two teams to Kashmir twice last year to assess the situation in a media interview in New Delhi called for an appointment of an interlocutor with full authority on Kashmir. He urged an immediate start of a dialogue process with people of Kashmir, to be joined by Pakistan subsequently. He said that he had sought a meeting with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Kashmir, but there was no response from the Prime Minister office.