Srinagar: In occupied Kashmir, students continued their protests for the sixth consecutive day, today, against the use of brute force by Indian troops on the student community in the territory.
The students marched on the streets in Kangan, Pattan and Bandipore areas and staged sit-ins against the Indian forces’ raids on Pulwama College and the subsequent brutalities unleashed by forces against the students. Many students were injured when troops fired pellets and teargas shells in Ajas, Hariganiwan, Chattergul and Goshbug areas. The troops also barged into the premises of Nadim Memorial Higher Secondary School in Kaloosa area of Bandipora and subjected students to severe torture.
Meanwhile, the joint resistance leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik in a joint statement issued in Srinagar called for peaceful protests, tomorrow, after Friday prayers to express solidarity with the students. The resistance leaders said that an undeclared martial law had been imposed as the occupied territory had been virtually handed over to the armed forces’ personnel who were killing anybody coming in their way. The leaders criticized the puppet administration for invading the educational institutions and assaulting students terming it as manifestation of naked state-terrorism.
APHC General Secretary, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Zafar Akbar Butt, Zamrooda Habib, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza, Muhammad Musaddiq Aadil and Muhammad Farooq Rehmani in their statements denounced the authorities for subjecting students to brute force.
The Kashmir High Court Bar Association in a statement termed the Indian Attorney General’s statement in which he defended the troops for tying a youth to a jeep, as unjustified.
An 80-year-old leader of Jamaat-e-Islami occupied Kashmir, Sheikh Mohammad Yousuf has once again been detained under the draconian law, Public Safety Act. The fresh PSA has been slapped on Sheikh Yousuf after being kept under judicial custody for more than three months in Kupwara jail.