Srinagar, February 23 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik has called for complete shutdown in the territory, tomorrow, against India’s arbitrary measures like mass arrest, killings, repeal attempts to repeal Article 35-A, that grants special rights to the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
The JRL in a statement issued in Srinagar said the arbitrary arrest of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik and the mass crackdown and illegal detention of more than 200 Jamaat-e-Islami activists and leadership including its Ameer, Abdul Hameed Fayaz seemed to be not only part of the continued policy of suppression of resistance leadership and narrative, but in the case of hearing of Article 35-A in Indian Supreme Court most likely on Monday.
The JRL said deployment of additional 100 companies of paramilitary forces on an urgent basis also indicates that something is cooking in this regard. It said challenge to heredity state subject law is an extremely important issue for the people as it is akin to our very existence as a people and directly linked to the Kashmir dispute.
It said the spontaneous shutdown and protests across the valley against even the thought of tampering with the law should leave no doubt in the minds of those who have left no stone unturned to suppress and muzzle the voice of Kashmiris and are breaking records in repression, that the people of Kashmir will never allow it. “Entire people and leadership of Kashmir are one on this,” it added.
The JRL also denounced the pressure tactics being used by the authorities on certain media houses in Kashmir. “The standard of factual reporting maintained by our journalists is highly commendable,” it maintained.