Srinagar, February 11, 2018 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, various leaders and activists of the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) were today arrested by Indian police at Lal Chowk in Srinagar when they were marching towards UN observers office at Sonwar in Srinagar to present a memorandum to UN Secretary General demanding the return of mortal remains of prominent martyred liberation leaders, Muhammad Maqbool Butt and Muhammad Afzal Guru.
India had executed Muhammad Afzal Guru in Tihar jail on this day in 2013 and another prominent Kashmiri leader, Muhammad Maqbool Butt in the same jail on 11th February in 1984. The bodies of the two martyrs remain buried in the premises of the jail.
Those arrested today included Showkat Ahmad Bakhshi, Mushtaq Ajmal, Noor Muhammad Kalwal, Yasir Ahmad Dalal, Muhammad Yasin Butt, Sheikh Abdul Rashid, Sahil Ahmad (Boya), Bashir Ahmad Kashmiri, Farooq Ahmad Sodagar, Ali Muhammad Butt, Imtiyaz Ahmad Dar, Fayaz Ahmad Lone, Bashir Ahmad Hakeem and Bashrat Ahmad.
Earlier leaders and activists of JRL along with people from other walks of life including women gathered at JKLF office in Maisuma and marched towards UN office. Despite heavy restrictions, stringent curfew and spree of arrests and nocturnal raids the leaders along with other people and activists marched towards UN office but as they reached near Budshah Chowk they were stopped by forces personnel.
Holding photographs and placards in their hands and raising slogans in favor of freedom, martyrs and return of the mortal remains of Maqbool and Afzal, protesters gave a stiff resistance to police. Police after using brute force arrested many JRL leaders and activists and shifted them to police stations.
Prior to their arrest, JRL leaders Noor Muhammad Kalwal and Advocate Yasir Dalal while talking to media and protesters said that the hanging of Muhammad Maqbool Butt and Muhammad Afzal Guru and denial of a proper burial to them by India is the worst kind of cruelty and tyranny.
Paying rich tributes to martyr Muhammad Maqbool Butt, the JRL leaders said that the illegal hanging of these two Kashmiris is actually travesty of justice done by so-called biggest democracy of the world and refusing these martyrs a proper burial shows how much India is afraid of these great martyrs.
Speakers said that India by hanging Maqbool wanted to suppress Kashmiris’ voices for freedom and by refusing to hand over his corpse to his family for a proper burial this so-called biggest democracy wished to hide the legacy of Maqbool from reaching to his people. India has failed to achieve both these goals as thousands of young Kashmiris followed Maqbool and are sacrificing their lives for the freedom and self-determination, asserted the speakers.
Condemning the oppression unleashed by so-called rulers to suppress peaceful protests on 9th and 11h February, the speakers said that imposition of curfew and restrictions in Srinagar, Sopore ,Kupwara and other parts of Kashmir, nocturnal and daytime police raids against resistance leaders and activists, placing many under house arrest had exposed the myth of Indian democracy in Kashmir.
The speakers also condemned the arrest and house arrest of various leaders and activists including Muhammad Ashraf Sehraie, Ghulam Ahmad Gulzar, Ghulam Muhammad Dar, Bilal Ahmad Sideequi, Muhammad Ashraf Laya, Rafiq Ahmad Waar, Mushtaq Ahmad Wani, Umar Aadil Dar, Fayaz Ahmad Mir, Syed Imtiyaz Haider, Molvi Bashir Ahmad, Imtiyaz Ahmad Shah, Muhammad Yaseen Aatie, Muhammad Yousuf Butt, Bashir Ahmad Chopan, Showkat Ahmad Butt, Arshad Aziz and Sajad Ahmad Pala.
For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Website: www.kmsnews.org