Srinagar, March 20, 2019 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, normal life was crippled due to a protest shutdown against the killing of a school principal, Rizwan Asad, in police custody at an infamous torture center, Cargo Camp, in Srinagar, yesterday. Call for the strike was given by Joint Resistance Leadership and supported by trade bodies and Kashmir Bar Association. All shops and other business establishments were closed while public transport was off the roads in Srinagar and other district headquarters of the valley. Forces’ personnel were deployed in strength in all sensitive areas. Mobile Internet and train services remained suspended in the occupied territory. The 28-year-old martyr, Rizwan Asad, was associated with Jamaat-e-Islami.
The JRL has appealed to all segments of the society including traders, lawyers, Bar Association, civil society and others from different walks of life to peacefully protest, tomorrow, against the custodial killing and assaults on Kashmiris. On Friday after Juma prayers, people at all Masajid, Khanqahs and Imam Bargahs will raise their voice against the custodial killing by NIA and continuing policy of oppression by India.
Meanwhile, thousands of people participated in the funeral prayers of the martyred school principal in Awantipora area of Pulwama district. Amid anti-India and pro-freedom slogans, Rizwan was laid to rest at his ancestral graveyard in the district. Hurriyat leaders and organizations in their separate statements denounced the killing of Rizwan Asad in custody.
The All-Party Sikh Coordination Committee in a statement issued in Srinagar deplored that no headway had been made in the Chittisinghpora mass killing of Sikhs despite the passing of 19 years. Thirty-five members of Sikh community were killed in disguise by Indian troops in Chittisinghpora area of Islamabad district on March 20 in 2000 on the eve of the then US President, Bill Clinton’s visit to India.
On the other hand, media reports said that Kashmir Scholars Consultative and Action Network, an interdisciplinary group of scholars from various countries and regions engaged in research on the region of Kashmir, in an open letter addressed to the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, urged the UN to fulfill its responsibility to mediate a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute. The letter said that the Pulwama incident was the direct outcome of the continuing cycles of violence perpetuated by the policies followed by successive Indian governments in Kashmir.
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