Restrictions in IOK on Maqbool Butt’s martyrdom day
Srinagar, Feb 11 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, resistance leaders and activists defying curfew-like restrictions, today, staged protest demonstrations to press for the return of mortal remains of Kashmiri martyred leaders, Muhammad Maqbool Butt and Mohammad Afzal Guru.
Scores of the leaders and activists including women and children staged the protest in Srinagar. The protesters raised pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. Call for the protests was given by the Joint Resistance Leadership.
The authorities had imposed curfew-like restrictions in Srinagar and other areas of the territory, today, on 35th martyrdom anniversary of Muhammad Maqbool Butt. The restrictions were particularly imposed in Mahraj Gunj, SafaKadal, Nowhatta, Rainawari, Khanyar and Maisuma areas of Srinagar.
However, the protesters flouted the restrictions barring assembly of four or more persons at a particular place in the downtown and Maisuma areas of Srinagar and assembled at Lal Chowk to stage anti-India protests.
Indian police arrested Hurriyat leaders and activists including Bilal Siddiqi, Yasmeen Raja, Masooda Ji, Dilshada Akhtar, Naseema Akhtar, Afrooza Farooq Shah, Imtiyaz Ahmad Shah, Abdul Rasheed, Shaikh Abdul Rashid, Arshad Aziz, Javed Ahmad Butt, Fayaz Ahmad Butt, Abdul Rashid Lone, Arshad Aziz, Shakir Ahmad Ahangar, Mukhtar Ahmad Ganai and Imtiyz Ahmad Ganai during the protest demonstrations at Maisuma and Lal Chowk. The protests were held to raise the demand for return of bodies of Muhammad Maqbool Butt and Muhammad Afzal Guru to their relatives for proper burial.
Meanwhile, Indian police on Sunday evening arrested Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leaders Mushtaq Ajmal and Muhammad Yasin Butt while JKLF Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik and other party leaders including Showkat Ahmad Bakhshi, Noor Muhammad Kalwal, Muhammad Salim Nanaji, Ghulam Muhammad Dar, Bashir Ahmad Boya, Gulzar Ahmad Pahalwan and Fayaz Ahmad are already in police custody, a JKLF spokesman said in statement.
Police also arrested Hurriyat leader, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza and Maulana Parray Hassan Firdousi.
Prior to their arrest, resistance leaders while talking to media and protesters said that the hanging of foremost resistance leader Muhammad Maqbool Butt and Muhammad Afzal Guru and denial of a proper burial to them by India was a worst kind of cruelty and tyranny. Paying rich tributes to martyr Muhammad Maqbool Butt, they said that the illegal hanging of these two Kashmiris was actually travesty of justice done by so-called biggest democracy of the world.
The speakers said that imposition of curfew and restrictions in Srinagar, Kupwara and other parts of Kashmir, nocturnal and daytime police raids against resistance leaders and activists, placing many under house arrest including Syed Ali Shah Gilani, Mirwaiz Muhammad Umar Farooq and arresting Muhammad Yasin Malik have exposed the myth of Indian democracy.
They also condemned the arrest and house arrest of various leaders and activists including Muhammad Ashraf Sehraie, Showkat Ahmad Bakhshi, Noor Muhammad Kalwal, Muhammad Salim Nanaji, Mushtaq Ajmal, Bilal Ahmad Sideequi, Muhammad Yasin Butt, Ghulam Muhammad Dar, Bashir Ahmad Boya, Gulzar Ahmad Pahalwan, Fayaz Ahmad, Muhammad Yasin Ataie, Shakil Ahmad Butt, Imtiyaz Haider, Muhammad Yosuf Butt and others.
On the occasion a copy of the memorandum to UN secretary general was also released to media. The text of the Memorandum is as follows.
Text of Memorandum
Excellency, Secretary-General,
On behalf of the people of Jammu & Kashmir we the under-signed convey the overwhelming desire of our people to get the mortal remains of our Martyrs legendary Mohammad Maqbool Bhat and Mohammad Afzal Guru to give them a dignified burial they deserve.
The two prominent heroes of Kashmir freedom struggle were executed in the Tihar Jail of New-Delhi on February 11, 1984 and on February 9, 2013 respectively. Denying the legal right to their kith and kin to give them proper burial and funeral after execution the two were buried inside the premises of Tihar Jail. It is not only our assertion but the opinion of many human rights organizations, activists and justice loving people around the globe that both ideologues Mohammad Maqbool Bhat and Mohammad Afzal Guru’s execution was based on politically-motivated judgments and against all norms of justice and fairness. They were executed just “to satisfy the collective conscience of the Indian society” rather than on the basis of concrete evidence or the principle of fair justice.
Excellency, as the saying goes that, “there is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice” both were hanged under the same shield of law and in the name of justice. What could be crueler than even denying the legal right of their proper burial and funeral to their near and dear ones? Both being the prominent heroes of our freedom struggle, it has been the constant demand of the people of Jammu & Kashmir to get their mortal remains so that they are given an appropriate and dignified burial. The demand is completely genuine and in accordance with the principles of law and justice. However, the successive governments of India have rejected this demand and refused to return the mortal remains of the two martyrs to the people.
Excellency, the people of Jammu & Kashmir are engaged in a struggle for the exercise of their right to self-determination that has been accrued to them through UN charter and various United Nations resolutions for the past seven decades and the government of India has been using all possible methods of suppression and coercion to silence the voice of the people.
9 and 11 February being the martyrdom anniversary of Mohammad Afzal Guru and Mohammad Maqbool Butt respectively, we appeal your Excellency to effectively take up the issue with the government of India for the return of the mortal remains of both the martyrs to their kith and the people of Jammu & Kashmir. May we remind you that, “Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph”.
Yours
Syed Ali Gilani,
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq,
Muhammad Yasin Malik
On behalf of the people of Jammu Kashmir