Kashmiris to continue struggle despite Indian atrocities: Ali Geelani

SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, veteran Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani has said Kashmiri people will continue their struggle for securing their inalienable right to self-determination till it reaches its logical conclusion, despite all odds.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Geelani, who is under continued house arrest in Srinagar, in a media interview said the state terrorism by India was at its peak in the valley and Indian troops and police personnel had made life miserable for its people.
He pointed out that several leaders were kept under house arrest even on Eid-ul-Fitr and were not allowed to offer congregational prayers. Senior Hurriyat leader Shabbir Ahmad Shah in a statement issued in Srinagar said Pakistan had always played its role in settlement of Kashmir dispute. He hoped Pakistan would continue moral, political and diplomatic support to the people of Kashmir. A Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front delegation visited Kupwara and Baramulla jails and met the inmates.
Later, talking to media men, the delegation members expressed serious concern over the miserable plight of the inmates. They said the jail authorities were treating the Kashmiri detainees inhumanly and they were deprived of all basic facilities and were not even produced before courts on the dates of hearing of their cases.
On the other hand, India will raise five more battalions to be deployed in occupied Kashmir to suppress the Kashmiris’ just struggle for securing their inalienable right to self-determination. A senior official of Indian Home Ministry told the media that the ministry had moved a proposal for raising 17 India Reserve Battalions, of which five would be for Jammu and Kashmir and 12 for the states where Maoist were engaged in the struggle for freedom from India.