Complete shutdown in Occupied Kashmir against Indian elections
Indian forces blocked Kashmir's main highway for civilians.
SRINAGAR (Web Desk): In occupied Kashmir, the Joint Resistance Leadership while releasing the protest calendar has called for a complete shutdown in the territory, tomorrow, on the first phase of the so-called Indian parliamentary elections as well as brutal measures against the Kashmiri people and their leadership.
The JRL in a statement issued in Srinagar, today, said the strike is also aimed to protest against the “NIA aggression which includes the shifting of JKLF Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik to Delhi’s Tihar jail under the pretext of questioning by the National Investigation Agency, rigorous questioning of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq at NIA headquarters in Delhi and sustained interrogation and repeated summoning of two sons of APHC Chairman Syed Ali Gilani to Delhi by NIA.”
The shutdown, according to the JRL statement, also be observed against the closure of Kashmir’s main highway for civilians and recent attack by Indian police and forces on inmates in Srinagar central jail. The strike will be held on the rest of the polling days as well.
A Delhi court, today, sent the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Muhammad Yasin Malik, into the custody of India’s infamous National Investigation Agency till April 22 in the name of interrogation in a fake case registered against him. Yasin Malik who was shifted from Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu to Delhi’s infamous Tihar Jail, last night, was produced before special judge, today. He was arrested by the NIA inside the courtroom.
In total disregard of all established norms and values, India’s Enforcement Directorate has issued separate notices to wife as well as minor daughters of incarcerated Democratic Freedom Party Chairman, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, attaching their residential house.
Twenty-six civil society members including former Kashmir interlocutor Radha Kumar in a letter addressed to the Indian Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, expressed concern over India’s anti-Kashmiris moves including the prohibition of civilian traffic on Srinagar-Jammu highway, ban on Jamaat-e-Islami and Muhammad Yasin Malik-led Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and arrest of Hurriyat leaders and activists.
Meanwhile, the New York-based International human rights watchdog, Human Rights Watch, while criticizing India has said that the beleaguered people of occupied Kashmir were facing a new challenge after the Indian authorities closed Srinagar-Jammu highway to civilians for two days every week. The rights body Asia Director, Meenakshi Ganguly in an article also said the muscular approach may also have encouraged a culture of collective punishment against Kashmir’s Muslim citizens, with mobs carrying out attacks on students and traders in various cities across India.
