Mirwaiz placed under house arrest for second consecutive Friday in IOJK
Srinagar: The Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) administration placed All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) senior leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq under house arrest for the second consecutive Friday, preventing him from offering congregational prayers at Srinagar’s historic Jamia Masjid.
According to Kashmir Media Service, authorities under the command of New Delhi-imposed Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha barricaded all access leading to Mirwaiz’s residence in Srinagar, effectively placing him under house detention and causing disruption to the surrounding neighbourhood.
In a video message, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said, “For second consecutive Friday I remain under house detention – with every lane and by-lane to my residence barricaded, causing inconvenience to the entire neighbourhood.”
He further asserted, “Let me make it clear to the rulers, the memory of our martyrs cannot be regulated by them. It resides in our hearts. Facts and history cannot be erased by lockdowns and barring people from visiting the martyrs graveyards or stopping me from going to Jamia Masjid on Fridays, not by appeasing narratives or shameful communal distortions, if it resides in the collective memory of people, which it does. The martys of July 13 1931 were the frontrunners of the political movement in Kashmir; a people’s just struggle against oppression. They are and will remain our inspiration”.
The Mirwaiz was also placed under house arrest on July 11, two days ahead of the commemoration of the July 13, 1931 massacre, when 22 Kashmiris were killed by Dogra forces for demanding end to tyranny.
