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New Delhi, August 29, 2018 (PPI-OT): Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party government has arrested veteran human rights activist and a strong critic of Indian policies against Muslims in India in general, and in Jammu and Kashmir in particular, Gautam Navlakha, from his residence in New Delhi.
Gautam Navlakha, a civil liberties, democratic and human rights activist and a journalist was arrested on the false charge of having links with Maoists. Navlakha was produced before the court and would be taken into custody by the Maharashtra Police.
Gautam Navlakha’s real ‘crime’ is his disapproval of Indian policies in occupied Kashmir. For example, four days after the martyrdom of popular Kashmiri youth leader Burhan Muzaffar Wani on July 08, 2016, Navlakha wrote an article titled Kashmir – Cry My Beloved Country.
He wrote, “Indians remain ignorant of the depth of the passion for Azaadi from forced union with India, a union imposed in myriad ways. The policy of land grabbing to settle ex-servicemen from outside the state (an old project of RSS); allowing non-state subjects unhindered access to land for industry, real estate, mining, for setting up fortified colonies for migrants; where control of the state government, especially Kashmir based ruling parties, over administration has always been circumscribed by New Delhi; and financial dependence compounded by autonomy of the military from the purview of representative government – all of these point to the fact that the reins of government are held in New Delhi.”
He further wrote, “Just as the obduracy of the Government in 1986-89 created the conflict situation then, the brutal suppression let loose since 1989-90 has transformed J and K, turning Kashmir in particular into a military garrison. The Indian army is everywhere – in bunkers, at check-posts, at drop gates, behind concertina fences, in camps, cantonments, fortifications, on roads, bazaars – an all too visible presence.” Gautam Navlakha has forgotten that freedom of expression exists nowhere in India, especially under Modi government. That is why his passion for human rights eventually landed him in jail.
For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
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