Srinagar: In occupied Kashmir, Indian police arrested Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik at Hyderpora in Srinagar to prevent them from addressing a press conference, today.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik had arrived at Hyderpora for a joint meeting and a subsequent press conference, but the authorities did not allow them to enter the residence of Syed Ali Gilani. The police action prompted dozens of Hurriyet leaders and activists, who were assembled at Hyderpora, to hold an anti-India protest demonstration. The protesters, who were led by the top three resistance leaders, raised pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. In the meantime, police arrested all the three top resistance leaders and shifted them to Humhama police station, Srinagar. Before their arrest, the leaders asked the Kashmiri people to completely boycott Indian Lok Sabha by-elections in central and south Kashmir.
Police also subjected over a dozen journalists and photojournalists to brutal torture on the occasion. These journalists had come to Hyderpora to cover the scheduled press briefing of the joint resistance leaders.
Hundreds of students of Islamic University of Science and Technology, today, held protest demonstrations to express solidarity with parents of seven-year-old girl, Kaneeza, who was killed in firing by Indian troops in Kupwara, yesterday. The students also launched an online campaign against the killing of the girl. The members of High Court Bar Association during a protest demonstration in Srinagar also condemned the girl’s killing.
The people of Kishtwar district told media that the personnel of Indian forces had made their lives a hell saying that they were tortured and harassed by the men in uniform during frequent crackdowns and raids on their houses.
In Geneva, an eight-member Kashmiri delegation during a seminar on the sidelines of the 34 session of the UN Human Rights Council demanded immediate intervention by the international community to save humanity in Kashmir from Indian aggression.
Meanwhile, a report by US State Department while highlighting the civilian killings in Kashmir during the 2016 uprising said the use of shotguns loaded with birdshot by forces had resulted in 88 civilian deaths, besides blinding hundreds including children. The 64-page “Country Report on Human Rights Practices†for 2016 was submitted to US Congress by the Department of State in the first week of March. The report said that due to immunity provisions under Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the authorities did not hold the armed forces responsible for the deaths of civilians in Kashmir. It also said the authorities don’t respect the right to protest peacefully.