Srinagar, February 10, 2018 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, complete shutdown will be observed and a march will be conducted towards the UN office at Sonawar in Srinagar, tomorrow, to mark the martyrdom anniversary of prominent Kashmiri liberation leader, Muhammad Maqbool Butt.
Call for the shutdown and the march has been given by the Joint Resistance Leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik to press the demand for the return of the mortal remains of Muhammad Maqbool Butt and another Kashmiri leader, Muhammad Afzal Guru to their families. India had hanged Muhammad Maqbool Butt in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail on 11th February in 1984 and Muhammad Afzal Guru in the same jail on 9th February, 2013, for their role in the Kashmir freedom movement. Their bodies remain buried in the premises of the jail.
The puppet authorities have put Hurriyat leaders including Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, Mukhtar Ahmed Waza, Ghulam Ahmed Gulzar, Muhammad Yousuf Naqash, Bilal Siddiqi, Muhammad Ashraf Laya, Umar Aadil Dar and Syed Imtiaz Haider under house arrest or in detention to prevent them from leading the march.
The Joint Resistance Leadership in a statement issued in Srinagar said that the hanging of Muhammad Maqbool Butt and Muhammad Afzal Guru was like a black page in the judicial history. It condemned the puppet authorities for imposing restrictions to prevent people from conducting various programmes in connection with the martyrdom anniversaries of the martyred leaders.
Muhammad Yasin Malik in a message from Srinagar Central Jail said that Muhammad Maqbool Butt was an ideologue, statesman, warrior, political leader and a diplomat who led the Kashmiris on all fronts and sacrificed his life for the Kashmir cause. Hurriyat leaders, Aasiya Andrabi, Muhammad Farooq Rehmani and Jammu and Kashmir Muslim League in their statements paying tributes to Muhammad Maqbool Butt and Muhammad Afzal Guru said that the Kashmiri people would accomplish the mission of their martyrs at all costs. The Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference held a special prayer session presided over by its Chairman, Muhammad Sultan Magray, at the party office in Srinagar for the martyred leaders.
Meanwhile, complete shutdown was observed in Shopian on the third successive day, today, against the arrest of two youth by the Indian police during raids in Bonbazar area of the town on Wednesday night. All shops and business establishments remained closed while traffic was off the road.
Two Indian army officers were killed and six soldiers injured in an attack by unknown gunmen on an army camp in Sunjwan area of Jammu, today. There are reports of killing of two children in the cross-firing between the attackers and the Indian forces’ personnel. Following the attack, a high alert has been sounded in Jammu and security beefed up in and around the city. A spokesperson of Indian army said that two attackers have also been killed in the ongoing encounter.
On the other hand, National Conference legislator, Muhammad Akbar Lone, shouted Pakistan Zindabad slogans in the so-called Kashmir Assembly, today, to counter BJP MLAs who were shouting anti-Pakistan slogans.
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