IHK people continue to suffer as lockdown enters 125th day

ISLAMABAD: The people particularly the residents of the Kashmir Valley continue to suffer immensely due to continued military lockdown, which entered 125th straight day on Saturday.

The imposition of restrictions under Section 144 in the territory and massive deployment of Indian troops in every nook and corner of the occupied territory has created a sense of fear among the local people, Kashmir Media Service reported.

The ban on internet, text messaging and prepaid mobile connections remains in force and the restoration of some means of communications, such as landline phones and postpaid mobile services, could not provide any respite to the people.

Meanwhile Chairman All Parties Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Geelani has appealed to the people to observe the World Human Rights Day, the 10th December, as Black Day to draw the attention of the international community towards the appalling human rights situation in the occupied territory.

Syed Ali Geelani in a statement issued in Srinagar, also asked the masses to mark the day with complete shutdown to remind the world that it has an obligation to stop Indian repression against the Kashmiri people and play an effective role in resolving the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions, Kashmir Media Service reported.

The APHC chairman said when the world is observing Human Rights Day; Indian occupational forces have broken all records of committing barbarity and excesses on the Kashmiri people. He said that Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948, was a milestone with regard to the rights and freedom for every human being, but despite this universal document, Kashmiri people’s political and human rights were being violated constantly.

Syed Ali Geelani said the continued denial of right to self-determination to the people of Kashmir was the biggest human rights violation. He maintained that right to self-determination is a universally recognized right and the same was promised to people of Jammu and Kashmir by the United Nations but India was suppressing this right by resorting to the worst human rights violations in occupied Kashmir. It is unfortunate that the world has remained largely unmindful about these violations and as a result India got encouraged to carry on its brutal repression against peaceful and unarmed Kashmiris, he added. The APHC chairman said the Kashmiri people were suffering for the past over seven decades due to the non-resolution of the Kashmir dispute. He said that New Delhi’s obduracy had remained a stumbling block in the peaceful settlement of this dispute and noted that New Delhi was denying not only the Kashmiris their fundamental right to self-determination but was continuously violating their civil and political rights at the dint of its military might.

He said human rights violations would continue to occur as long as Indian troops were present in occupied Kashmir. He urged the international community to break its silence on the current human rights situation in Kashmir and held India accountable for its crimes in Indian Occupied Kashmir.

In the meantime a mentally-challenged man was critically injured after he was fired upon by Indian troops in Pulwama district, in Indian Occupied Kashmir on Saturday.

The injured man was identified as 40-year-old Bashir Ahmed Ganai, a resident of Frisal Yaripoa area of neighbouring in Kulgam district, Kashmir Media Service reported.

The police said the incident happened when Ganai was roaming in the area and came close to the wall of the high-security zone at the Awantipora Air Force Station. Despite repeated warnings by the BSF men guarding the station, he did not stop.

The sentry fired towards him below the waist and he was wounded, SP, Pulwama, Chandan Kohli said. Our teams soon rushed to the spot and the injured was shifted to hospital, he said.