Uncertainty prevails in IOK on 115th day

ISLAMABAD: The Kashmir and many parts of Jammu region continued to remain isolated from the world as the unprecedented military lockdown entered the 115th running day, in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).

Though uneasy calm and uncertainty prevail in the Valley yet life remains badly affected there as restrictions under Section 144 remain enforced, shops and business centers are mostly shut and few turn up to educational institutions and offices.

Internet gag persists while prepaid mobile and text messaging services also remain in shutdown mode. The increasing chill has also added to the miseries of the already suffering people of the occupied territory, the Kashmir Media Service reported.

India’s Enforcement Directorate has taken the possession of assets worth over Rs60 million in connection with a false case against noted Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmed Watali. The agency said these properties are in the form of land parcels and located in two villages of Badgam district. The ED had attached these properties in April this year.

Watali is presently lodged in New Delhi’s infamous Tihar Jail in connection with a fake case registered against him by India’s National Investigation Agency.

The Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir, Pir Panjal Freedom Movement, AdvocateQazi Irshad, in a statement issued after a party meeting in Jammu demanded an end to the ongoing military lockdown and ban on prepaid mobile and internet services in occupied Kashmir.

Social activist, Sajjad Kargili, in an interview in Srinagar said that India was mistaken if it believed that it would succeed to suppress the Kashmiris through its over 900,000 troops deployed in occupied Kashmir.

Meanwhile, the Indian Supreme Court (SC) Wednesday reserved the judgment on a batch of petitions challenging restrictions imposed on communication, media and telephone services in occupied Kashmir in the wake of the abrogation of the special status of the territory on August 5.

A bench of Justices NV Ramana, R Subhash Reddy, and BR Gavai heard the petitions filed by various petitioners including Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kashmir Times Editor Anuradha Bhasin and others.

The petitioners submitted that the restrictions have virtually paralysed the lives of 7 million people; their daily lives have been impacted, adding that education, medical care, business, agriculture, tourism etc, have taken a bad hit due to the lockdown of the territory.

Advocate Vrinda Grover (for Bhasin), Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal (for Azad), Senior Advocate Raju Ramachandran (for Mubeen), Senior Advocates Huzefa Ahmadi and Dushyant Dave (for intervenors) submitted arguments for petitioners.

Meanwhile, a constitution bench of the Indian Supreme Court (SC), headed by Justice NV Ramana, is scheduled to hear the petitions challenging the abrogation of Kashmir’s special status and dividing it into Union Territories on December 3.

According to Kashmir Media Service, Senior Supreme Court lawyer and Congress leader Kapil Sibal, appearing on behalf of Ghulam Nabi Azad, in his arguments, on Wednesday, during hearing on the petitions, called the Indian forces deployed in occupied Kashmir as ‘mischief-makers.’

He told the court that seven million people have been confined to their homes in Kashmir in the name of national security. “You can take people into custody. You can say Section 144 is imposed. But you cannot take 7 million people into custody in the name of the national security,” said Sibal. “You can confine troublemakers, not people,” he added.