Category: Official News

New Delhi, February 09, 2023 (PPI-OT):The ongoing so-called anti-encroachment drive by the administration in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir has snowballed into a major controversy, with opposition parties saying that the Modi-led Indian government is targeting the poor, and political opponents, making people homeless and snatching their livelihood, a Delhi-based media channel reported. The massive bulldozer action across the occupied territory has triggered protests at several places, as the administration declared land cultivated and inhabited by people for generations as illegal encroachment. Even some arrests have been made by the authorities in Jammu in connection with protests against the authorities’ drive.

Bulldozers are being used to demolish structures and homes across the occupied territory particularly in the Kashmir Valley and Muslim-majority areas of Jammu region. The opposition says bulldozers are being used on communal lines, NDTV reported. The drive, which started in January, was supposedly meant to retrieve land allegedly encroached upon by many, including politicians and senior state officials, NDTV said, adding when the order set off an outcry, IIOJK Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and officials of his administration said only the encroachments by the “high and mighty” will be targeted in the drive, but a mass eviction drive is being carried across the territory.

According to an order issued by the revenue department last month, all district collectors have been directed to retrieve state land, leased land, common use land, and also grazing land. Since then, a massive anti-encroachment drive is underway, thousands of acres of land has been snatched from locals, and numerous constructions demolished. The drive has left thousands of families vulnerable, facing prospects of homelessness and livelihood challenges, the NDTV report concluded.

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New Delhi, February 09, 2023 (PPI-OT):Leading American newspaper, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported that Facebook users offered “handguns, rifles, shotguns and bullets” for sale to members of a forum devoted to the Hindutva organisation Bajrang Dal, which has a history of violence in India. Eight posts, some of which had been up since April 2022, were spotted by Raqib Hameed Naik, the founder of Hindutva Watch, a group that monitors attacks against religious minorities in India. He began reporting them to Meta in January, as per WSJ, because they contravene “the company’s publicly stated policy that prohibits private individuals from buying or selling firearms or ammunition on Facebook platforms.”

The newspaper claims it reviewed documents that established that “Facebook declined to remove them, saying the posts didn’t violate the company’s rules.” The newspaper says that after it inquired about the posts, Facebook on February 7 removed them, saying “they ran afoul of the company’s policies.” It cites a Meta spokeswoman saying, “We prohibit individuals from buying or selling guns on our apps” and “remove violating content as soon as we see it.” The newspaper says the spokesperson “declined to comment on why the posts hadn’t been removed when first reported.”

The posts offering firearms for purchase, now taken down, appeared in groups on the social media platform, “that pledge allegiance to Bajrang Dal,” a youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). Bajrang Dal was deemed a “militant religious organisation” by the US Central Intelligence Agency in 2018, along with the VHP. Members of Bajrang Dal have in past years been “jailed in India for religiously motivated killings”, the WSJ report add. A spokesman for Bajrang Dal and the VHP told the newspaper that the US government’s assessment of Bajrang Dal is misguided, that none of its members would purchase firearms and that the groups don’t believe in violence.

The posts offering guns for sale in five groups dedicated to the Bajrang Dal in which some sellers purportedly promised they could deliver firearms within 24 hours. In one post, reports the newspaper, “a user shared images of five pistols, some silver and some black in colour, with one resting on a motorcycle seat and another held in someone’s hand. Bronze-coloured bullets emerge from a clip in one photo.” One post said in Hindi that any “brother” who needs a “desi katta pistol” – an Indian homemade gun – should “contact the user via Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service at a mobile number provided”, according to WSJ. When Naik contacted the seller via WhatsApp, the person said that the pistols could be purchased for Rs 11,000 apiece. The WSJ claims it reviewed these messages.

Users in Facebook Groups devoted to Bajrang Dal have also made threats to use weapons against Muslims, according to separate posts the newspaper says it has seen. Two years ago, WSJ reported on internal Facebook documents that established how the company’s services were full of inflammatory content, “that one internal report connected to deadly religious riots in India.” Facebook said at the time that the company had invested significantly in technology to find hate speech across languages and that globally such content on the platform was declining. But the India Report has never been released.

Facebook has also been under fire for not releasing its Human Rights Impact Assessment for India. Then, despite Facebook in 2020 saying that the Bajrang Dal was likely qualified as a “dangerous organisation” that should be banned from Facebook, the group was not taken down, as a report from its security team said that “cracking down on it (Bajrang Dal) might endanger both the company’s business prospects and its staff in India”.

The spokesman for Bajrang Dal and the VHP told WSJ that Facebook’s staff would “have no reason to fear Bajrang Dal members.” He also said that Bajrang Dal has no official presence on Facebook, though there may be Groups and pages dedicated to the organisation. Facebook has its biggest presence in India, with 300 million using Facebook and over 400 million on its messaging service, WhatsApp.

The newspaper writes that “VHP is affiliated with Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh organisation, known as the RSS, for which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi worked for decades before his landslide election victory in 2014.” It contacted the RSS and the Prime Minister’s Office too for comments but did not receive a response.

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Islamabad, February 09, 2023 (PPI-OT):Late Syed Ali Gilani, the towering personality and iconic pro-freedom leader in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, in an appeal to the oppressed Kashmiris, had warned them beforehand to beware of India’s nefarious designs. In a video clip making rounds on social media, Syed Ali Gilani can be heard saying that everything belonging to the people of Kashmir is being snatched, their land and forests are being taken away, their honour and dignity as well as modesty of their women are being attacked. Above all, the sagacious leader warns that ultimately the Kashmiri Muslims will be forced to relinquish their religion.

The visionary Kashmiri pro-freedom leader says that he can write this with his blood that the Muslims of Kashmir will meet the same fate as witnessed by Muslims of Andulas (present-day Spain and Portugal) in the 16th century. He states that the Kashmir will be made a Hindu state after bringing Hindus from India and settling them in the territory. He says that the Kashmiri Muslims will be put behind bars on one pretext or other, they will be forced to migrate from their ancestral lands, they will be killed after deeming them as Mujahideen, and all this will be done to change the Muslim majority status of Jammu and Kashmir.

In the video, Syed Ali Gilani says this is the Indian policy towards Kashmir, urging the people of the occupied territory to beware of this wicked policy and also alert others about it. “This is our duty and we are performing this with the God’s help,” he adds. At the end, Syed Ali Gilani appeals to all Kashmiris, irrespective of their sects, to respect each other and stop saying words or doing things which will create chaos and disorder among the people, warning this may sound the death knell for the whole Kashmir community.

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Srinagar, February 09, 2023 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, two civilians were killed in two different road accidents in Kashmir Valley. A pedestrian identified as Ashiq Hussain Sheikh (37) was hit by a speedy vehicle on Srinagar-Baramulla highway near Hanjiwara in Baramulla district. He was immediately shifted to Trauma hospital Pattan where doctors declared him dead.

Another 52-year-old government employee identified as Ghulam Hassan died after hit by a speedy vehicle in Langate area of Kupwara. Meanwhile, a man Param Jeet Singh from Jammu committed suicide by hanging himself at his relative’s residence in Srinagar.

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Srinagar, February 09, 2023 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders have said that gallows, illegal detentions and other brutal tactics by India cannot suppress the Kashmiris’ resolve for achieving freedom from Indian illegal occupation of their homeland. According to Kashmir Media Service, the APHC leaders paying glowing tributes to prominent Kashmiri leaders, Muhammad Maqbool Butt and Muhammad Afzal Guru, on their martyrdom anniversaries, reaffirmed the Kashmiris’ resolve to accomplish the mission of their martyrs at all costs. They maintained that the martyrs are the real heroes of Kashmiris and a great asset of the ongoing freedom movement.

India had hanged Muhammad Afzal Guru in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail on this day in 2013 and sent Muhammad Maqbool Butt to the gallows in the same jail on 11th February in 1984 for their role in Kashmir freedom movement. Their bodies remain buried in the premises of the jail. Illegally detained senior APHC leader, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, in a massage from New Delhi’s Tihar jail said that the hanging of Afzal Guru was miscarriage of justice. The verdict against Guru, he said, was slap on India’s judiciary and its entire legal system that brazenly violated the fundamentals of justice by denying him the right to fair trial.

Shabbir Shah expressed the hope that the day was not far when subjugated but determined people of Kashmir will see the dawn of freedom. He also took strong exception to Narendra Modi regime’s eviction and demolition drive in IIOJK terming it as a part of conspiracy to cripple Kashmiris economically and render them homeless and weaken their stand on Kashmir. Senior APHC leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who in under continued house arrest, in a statement issued in Srinagar urged the world community and international human rights bodies to impress upon New Delhi to transfer the mortal remains of Maqbool Butt and Afzal Guru from Delhi’s Tihar Jail to occupied Kashmir for proper burial.

He said that the sacrifices offered by the Kashmiri martyrs were a constant reminder to the world that they remain steadfast and work with dedication and focus towards the fair and just resolution of the lingering Kashmir dispute. The Mirwaiz urged the people to fully stand with their just demand of right to self-determination to send a strong message to New Delhi that they will continue their struggle till it reached its logical conclusion. Another illegally detained senior APHC leader, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, in a massage from Tihar Jail said the Kashmiris have been engaged in a valiant struggle for a just political cause and they have rendered unparalleled sacrifices for it in the last over seven decades.

The best way of paying tributes to the Kashmiri martyrs is that people remain steadfast and committed towards the cause they laid down for, he maintained. Other APHC leaders and organizations including Ghulam Muhammad Khan Sopori, Syed Bashir Andrabi, Khawaja Firdous, Muhammad Yasin Attai, Firdous Ahmed Shah, Zamruda Habib, Yasmeen Raja, Farida Bahenji, Khadim Hussain, Syed Sibte Shabbir Qummi, Javiad Ahmed Mir, Dr Musaib, Muhammad Aaqib, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Jammu Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party, and Jammu and Kashmir Muslim League in their separate statements also paid rich tributes to the Kashmiri martyrs especially Maqbool Butt and Afzal Guru.

They said that the due to the sacrifices of the Kashmiri martyrs, the Kashmir dispute was echoing in every forum of the world. They said that these sacrifices would not be allowed go waste and the mission of Kashmiri martyrs would be accomplished at all costs. The leaders and organizations said fascist Modi cannot kill the Kashmiris’ freedom sentiment by resorting to wanton killings. They said the Kashmiris being custodians of the martyrs’ blood are determined to take the freedom struggle to its logical end. They urged India to read the writing on the wall and accept the reality about Kashmiris’ struggle for freedom.

They also called upon the justice-loving people and organisations of the world to compel India to hand over the mortal remains of Maqbool Butt and Afzal Guru to their families so that they can accord the martyrs a proper burial.

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Srinagar, February 09, 2023 (PPI-OT):Two Kashmiri pilgrims who had gone to Saudi Arabia for Umrah passed away after performing the religious obligation. The Jammu and Kashmir Association of Hajj Umrah Companies (JKAHUC) said that two Kashmiri pilgrims who have been identified as Ghulam Qadir Reshi of Tangmarg and Misra Banoo of Pulwama passed away after performing religious duties in Makkah.

Ghulam Qadir, 80, died in Makkah while Misra Banoo, 61, passed away after suffering from a severe heart attack in flight from Jeddah to Delhi.

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Chandigarh, February 09, 2023 (PPI-OT):Dozens of people including policemen were injured during clashes between the police and protesters in Chandigarh city of the Indian state of Punjab. People from various parts of Punjab under the banner of the ‘Qaumi Insaf Morcha’ have been staging a protest at the YPS Chowk near the Chandigarh-Mohali border since January 7 to seek the release of Sikh prisoners in jails across India. The protesters tried to march towards the official residence of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in Chandigarh.

Police had put up barricades near the Chandigarh-Mohali border to prevent the protesters from moving towards Chief Minister’s residence. When the protesters tried to force their way through the barricades, the police used brute force and water cannon to disperse them, triggering clashes. Dozens of people including 30 cops were injured and several vehicles were damaged in the clashes.

The protesters are seeking justice in the 2015 sacrilege and police-firing incidents in Farid Kot. For the last two days, they have been trying to go to Chandigarh but were detained by police.

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