Lockdown enters 156th day: Indian troops martyr one more youth in IOK

ISLAMABAD: Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred one Kashmiri youth in Pulwama district in Held Kashmir.

The youth identified as Zahid Hassan was martyred during a cordon and search operation, jointly launched by Indian Army, police and Central Reserve Police Force in Awantipora area of the district. Zahid Hassan was a resident of Islamabad town, Kashmir Media Service reported.

Meanwhile, Indian troops launched cordon and search operations in Samba, Kathua, Ramban and Rajouri districts in the Jammu region and Srinagar, Ganderbal, Hajin, Islamabad, Shopian, Pulwama and Kulgam. Besides, the people of the occupied territory continued facing miseries on the 156th consecutive day (Tuesday) due to military siege and lockdown, particularly in Kashmir Valley and Muslim majority areas of Jammu.

The troops have been put on high alert after they found a parcel of Improvised Explosive Device (IED) at the gate of Border Security Force’s 173 battalion headquarters in Panj Tila area of Samba, Indian official sources claimed.

Almost all journalist organisations of occupied Jammu and Kashmir staged a sit-in protest at the press club in Srinagar against the unabated internet suspension since August 5, last year. They said it was humiliating to give journalists a limited internet access at media facility centres and described it as a ban on media.

The journalists were carrying placards bearing slogans like ‘stop humiliating Kashmiri journalists’, and ‘156 days, no internet’. People staged protest against the killing of a Kashmiri youth and injuring of another by a speeding police vehicle in Nowgam area of Srinagar. The protesters demanded arrest of police vehicle driver.

Prominent lawyer and president of High Court Bar Association of Occupied Kashmir, Mian Abdul Qayoom, is battling multiple ailments inside Agra jail of Uttar Pradesh. His family told media in Srinagar that 70-year-old Qayoom, who has no access to medical facilities in jail, is surviving on one kidney as his other kidney was removed in the past.