Protests erupt in IOK over youth martyrdom

HELD SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, the Resistance Day was marked on Friday by forceful demonstrations by people against martyrdom of a youth and use of brute force on protesters by the Indian police and troops.

Call for the Resistance Day was given by the joint resistance leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik to protest against illegal detention of Hurriyet leaders, activists and youth.

People took to the streets in Srinagar, Badgam, Bandipore, Hajin, Baramulla, Sopore, Palhallan, Islamabad, Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam and other areas, putting up Pakistani flags. 

They shouted pro-freedom, pro-Pakistan and anti-India slogans and waved Pakistani flags. The protests were led by Hurriyet leaders including Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi Al-Safvi, Noor Muhammad Kalwal, Showkat Ahmed Bakhshi, Shabbir Ahmed Dar, Muhammad Iqbal Mir and members of Tehreek-e-Hurriyet and Awami Action Committee. Indian police fired pellets and teargas and Pava shells to disperse the protesters in Srinagar, Sopore, Pulwama and other areas, triggering clashes between the demonstrators and the police personnel. Several people sustained injuries in the police action. The police also took several Hurriyet leaders and activists into custody during the protests.

The authorities kept Hurriyet leader Syed Ali Gilani under house arrest. Mukhtar Ahmed Waza continued to remain in custody. Indian police arrested the APHC General Secretary, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, in Tral town when he reached there to meet the parents of popular martyred youth leader, Burhan Muzaffar Wani.

Tehreek-e-Hurriyet Jammu and Kashmir, in a statement in Srinagar, strongly denounced the shifting of its illegally detained leader Hakimur Rehman Sultani. It said that Rehman was admitted to a hospital where he had to undergo a surgery of his broken arm but the police forcibly lodged him in the jail.

Meanwhile, the All Parties Hurriyet Conference and resistance leaders Muhammad Yasin Malik and Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi Al-Safvi in their statements expressed serious concern over the reports of sanctioning 5,000 pellet guns and over six hundred thousand cartridges for the Indian forces in occupied Kashmir to quell protests. They said that Indian brutalities could not deter the Kashmiri people from continuing their just struggle for securing their right to self-determination.

On the other hand, complete shutdown was observed in Ratnipora area of Pulwama, today, against the arrest of twenty innocent youth by Indian police during a raid last night.