Srinagar: In occupied Kashmir, two youth were martyred and three Indian army personnel including a Major were killed in two separate incidents in Kulgam and Shopian districts, today.
The two youth Aaqib Ahmad Ittoo and Suhail Ahmad Rathar were shot dead by Indian troops during a siege and search operation in Gopalpora village of Kulgam, early in the morning.
Over thirty thousand people participated in the funeral prayers of the two martyrs at their ancestral villages. They were buried amid pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. Mujahideen appeared in the funeral of Suhail Ahmad and offered him a gun salute in Tantraypora village of the district. The authorities suspended mobile and Internet services in south Kashmir immediately after the killings.
In a separate incident, three Indian army men including a Major, Kamlesh Pandey, were killed and two other personnel were critically injured during an attack at Zaipora in Shopian district.
The joint resistance leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik in a statement issued in Srinagar, today, gave a call for protests in the occupied territory, tomorrow, after Friday prayers against the surge in killings and raids by India’s National Investigation Agency on the residences of Hurriyat leaders.
A Delhi court, today, sent APHC General Secretary, Shabbir Ahmad Shah for a fresh remand of six days on the demand of the Enforcement Directorate in a fake case against him. Shabbir Shah filed an application in the court and said that he faced threat to his life in the custody and he was forced to sign blank documents.
The All Parties Hurriyat Conference in a statement said that the detainees in Indian jails were stripped naked and subjected to extreme brutality by the jail staff even in presence of their family members and visitors. The statement pointed out that the situation in Kathua Jail, Jammu, was extremely horrible, in particular.
A delegation led by APHC leader, Bilal Ahmad Sidiqee, today, visited Lelhaar and Begum Bagh areas of Pulwama to offer condolences to the bereaved families of Arif Lelhari and Firdous Ahmed who were killed by Indian troops in the district on Tuesday. Hurriyat leaders, Zafar Akbar Butt and Javed Ahmad Mir visited the families of illegally detained Hurriyat leaders including Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Masarrat Aalam Butt, Shahidul Islam, Peer Saifullah, Mushtaqul Islam and Merajuddin Kalwal, and expressed solidarity with them.
In Washington, Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary General of World Kashmir Awareness Forum, while addressing an event said the Kashmir represented government’s repression and not of a secessionist or separatist movement but of an uprising against foreign occupation. He emphasized that the occupation was expected to end under determinations made by the United Nations. The event was also addressed by Abid Khurshid, President of Kashmir Journalists Forum, Islamabad. He said that the plebiscite in Kashmir was the only way forward to settle the Kashmir dispute.
