The Joint Resistance Leadership comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik Wednesday called for a shutdown on October 18 (Thursday) against what it called “atrocities being inflicted on people, including gruesome killings, arbitrary arrests and slapping of PSA, destruction of homes, harassment of students, attack on journalists and all other measures of repression.”
In an e-mailed statement, the JRL said: “We express deep anguish and grief at the killing of civilian Rayees Ahmad and two armed youth Mehraj-ud-Din Bangroo and Faid Mushtaq Waza at Fateh Kadal by the forces Wednesday. We also condemn razing the house of Habibullah Sofi to ground and damaging other houses around it. As a result of this forces’ action, the owner of the house, whose son was killed and house razed to ground, suffered cardiac arrest and is battling for life at SHMS hospital.”
“The state repression against people is increasing with each passing day as it gets manifested in different forms of atrocities. State machinery is all out to crush people to crush their dissent. Communication lines are blocked as internet is suspended frequently; youth and pro-freedom activists are arbitrarily booked under draconian PSA and sent to outside J&K jails. There is no law in the land except the law of state might,” the JRL statement read, adding: “Universities and colleges are forcibly closed to disallow students from raising their voice against daily killings and atrocities. Kashmiri students in and outside state universities are booked in false cases and harassed. Even news reporters and photographers are not spared and thrashed.”
The JRL said that the “election dramas are foisted upon us through force and Kashmir has become a classic case of forcible control. No voice of humanity and justice is heard in India today that speaks up for what the people of Kashmir are being subjected to by their rulers in the so-called democratic country.”
“Leadership and activists are illegally and forcibly detained either in jails or kept under house arrest by the state (government) and not allowed to reach out to the people. No peaceful expression of protest by the leadership or people against these atrocities and anti-human measures is allowed,” the resistance leaders said, adding: “All space to peacefully and democratically resist this oppression has been completely chocked. Protest shutdowns are only means left with us to resist the onslaught.”