Peaceful protests after congregational Friday prayers were held in Kashmir as the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik had urged people to register their protest against civilian killings, “atrocities, indiscriminate use of pellets and vandalising of properties” by forces in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to a statement, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leaders and activists, along with people from many walks of life, gathered at Madina Chowk in Srinagar Lal Chowk and staged a peaceful protest “against ongoing killing spree, arrests, vandalising of villages and localities, beating and humiliation of men, women and children by forces.”
JKLF leaders Sheikh Abdur Rashid, Muhammad Sideeq Shah, Bashir Ahmad Kashmiri, professor Javed, Ghulam Muhammad Dar, Sheikh Aslam and others, were part of the protests, the statement read.
Senior Hurriyat leader Mukhtar Ahmad Sofi also participated in the protest where the participants held placards in favor of freedom, marched towards Lal Chowk and staged a sit-in near Budshah Chowk. The participants condemned prolonged incarceration of JKLF chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik, zonal president Noor Muhammad Kalwal and others who, along with Javed Ahmad Mir, are languishing at Kothibagh police station. They also protested against continuous house detention of Geelani and Mirwaiz.
The JKLF leaders said that “despite this one-sided violence by rulers, people of Kashmir boycotted the election drama. Claims of being a democracy and caging political leaders and activists and thus suppressing their voices can only be termed as hypocritical and travesty of democratic norms.”
“Muhammad Yasin Malik who was taken in custody on 2nd October along with Kalwal is still languishing at Kothibagh police station while JKLF leaders Sirajuddin Mir, Zahoor Ahmad Butt, Abdur Rashid Magloo, Assadullah Sheikh, Ghulam Nabi Kashmiri etc. are languishing in jails of Jammu under PSA while Sheikh Nazir Ahmad is serving a life sentence at Kotbalwal jail,” the statement read.
A peaceful protest was organised at Hyderpora in which people and leadership including Muhammad Yousuf Naqash, Molvi Bashir Irfani, Muhammad Rafiq Uwasi, Syed Muhammad Shafi, Imtiyaz Ahmad Shah, Khawaja Muhammad Maqbool Maghami, Imran Ahmad, Prof Makhdoomi, Abdur Rashid Dar and others participated.
Addressing the gathering, the leaders said that “growing aggression against unarmed and peaceful people in the state has touched an alarming line and turned this beautiful place into a battlefield.”
“Killings in Fateh Kadal Srinagar are worst form of state-sponsored terrorism,” the leaders alleged, and added that “authorities are desperate to cover their gruesome and inhuman acts and shielding criminals under the garb of AFSPA.”
The leaders expressed their deep anguish over “continuous silence” of international community and said that “though several resolutions were accepted in UNO to resolve the long-pending Kashmir issue, no steps were initiated. To put an end to hostilities in sub-continent, the international community should take concrete political steps to resolve this longstanding dispute.”
The leaders appealed to the Amnesty International, Asia Watch, and other international organisations for human rights to “break silence and take cognisance of the plight of suppressed and oppressed people in Jammu and Kashmir.”