June 30 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, despite curfew and other restrictions, people staged forceful anti-India demonstrations, today, while Indian forces’ personnel used brute force on the demonstrators, injuring several persons.
Call for the demonstrations was given by joint resistance leadership and United Jihad Council against fresh wave of illegal and arbitrary crackdown on Hurriyat leaders, activists and youth by Indian police and troops across the Kashmir Valley. The demonstrations were also aimed at registering protest against the US administration’s unjustified action of declaring the Hizbul Mujahideen Chief, Syed Salahuddin, as terrorist to appease the Government of India. The occupation authorities imposed curfew and other restrictions across the Kashmir Valley to stop people from holding the demonstrations. Juma prayers were not allowed at Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.
Despite curfew and heavy deployments of Indian troops and police personnel, people took to the streets in Srinagar, Badgam, Ganderbal, Islamabad, Shopian, Pulwama, Kulgam, Baramulla, Sopore, Pattan, Bandipora, Kupwara and other areas. The demonstrators were led by Hurriyet leaders including Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi Al-Safvi, Noor Muhammad Kalwal, Qazi Yasir and leaders of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, Awami Action Committee and Salvation Movement. The protesters raised high-pitched pro-freedom, pro-Pakistan and anti-India slogans. They also waved Pakistani flags at various places. Indian police resorted to brute force on the protesters in many areas, injuring several people. Pro-Pakistan and anti-India slogans were found written on the walls of government high school in Kishtwar town.
Meanwhile, Indian police arrested the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League, Mukhtar Ahmed Waza, from his residence in Islamabad town and lodged him in a local police station. The authorities also continued to place Hurriyet leaders including Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, Raja Merajuddin Kalwal, Altaf Ahmed Shah, Ayaz Muhammad Akbar and Zafar Akbar Butt under house arrest or in custody to stop them from leading the protests. They were not even allowed to offer Juma prayers.
The Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Gilani, in a statement issued in Srinagar strongly condemned the malicious propaganda campaign launched by a section of Indian media against Kashmir and the Kashmiri people. He said that this media was acting as a mouthpiece of fascist and fanatic forces and was involved in what could be termed as media terrorism against the Kashmiris.
The Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation has called for complete shutdown, tomorrow, against Indian government’s plans to implement Goods and Services Tax in the occupied territory. The President of the Federation, Muhammad Yaseen Khan, addressing a press conference in Srinagar said that the law was aimed at diluting the special status enjoyed by Jammu and Kashmir under the Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.
