Srinagar, August 17, 2019 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, the authorities continued to impose strict curfew and other restrictions across the Kashmir valley on the 13th consecutive day, today, to prevent people from holding demonstrations against India’s move of ending special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
Hundreds of people defying curfew took to the streets in Srinagar after Juma prayers yesterday to express their resentment against New Delhi’s continued illegal occupation and move of repealing Articles 370 and 35-A of the Indian Constitution that granted special status to the territory and its residents. They raised high-pitched anti-India, pro-Pakistan and pro-freedom slogans. Placards with “Thank you Pakistan slogans” were displayed.
The Indian authorities have been maintaining a strict curfew in the Kashmir valley since 5th August when Narendra Modi government announced scraping of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. The authorities have turned the valley into a military garrison by deploying Indian troops and police personnel in every nook and corner.
The authorities also continue to impose information blockade as TV channels and internet links are snapped and restrictions on media remain in place since 5th August. Local newspapers have failed to update their online editions while majority of them could also not be printed due to curfew and other restrictions during all this period. Due to severe blockade, people are facing acute shortage of essential commodities including baby food and life-saving medicines. Hundreds of thousands of people are besieged and Jammu and Kashmir has become a big jail.
On the other hand, almost all Hurriyat leaders, including Syed Ali Gilani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, have been put under house arrest or in jails. Over 1000 political leaders and workers including even pro-India politicians like Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Ghulam Ahmed Mir, Engineer Abdur Rasheed and Shah Faesal have been detained. The crackdown is so massive that jails and police stations have run out of space to lodge further detainees.
Indian police booked two Muslim youth namely Atiq Choudhary and Farooq Choudhary in Rajouri district of Jammu region for their posts on social media. A senior police official said a case has been registered against the youth and teams have been formed to arrest them.
The Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir People’s Freedom League, Muhammad Farooq Rehmani, in a statement issued in Islamabad urged the members of the UN Security Council to take strict action against India’s brutal measures in occupied Kashmir. The Vice Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Movement, Abdul Majeed Malik, in his statement said that it was due to the successful diplomacy and principled stance of Pakistan that the UN Security Council held discussions on Kashmir once again.
In New Delhi, Indian National Congress Spokesperson, Abhishek Manu Singhvi talking to reporters at party’s central office said that the United Nations Security Council meeting on Kashmir was a big diplomatic and strategic failure of the BJP government.
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