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Srinagar, May 25, 2018 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, dozens of people were injured when Indian troops used brute force on peaceful protesters in Srinagar, today. People took out a pro-freedom and anti-India rally after the Juma prayers ended at historic Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta area of Srinagar. The participants of the rally raised high-pitched slogans in favour of freedom and against India.
The Indian troops deployed in the area fired pellets and teargas shells to disperse the protesters, triggering clashes between the demonstrators and the troops. Dozens of people were injured, some of them critically, in the troops’ action. Eyewitnesses said that many teargas shells exploded inside the premises of the mosque.
The Chairman of Hurriyat forum, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, in a tweet while condemning the use of force against the protesters said the heavy deployment of Indian forces’ personnel outside the grand mosque leads to tension and agitation in the area. Earlier, addressing a gathering at the Jamia Masjid, the Mirwaiz expressed serious concern over increasing tension between Pakistan and India on the Line of Control and the Working Boundary and urged the two countries to settle the lingering Kashmir dispute.
Meanwhile, senior leader of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi Al-Safvi addressing a gathering in Budgam and Hurriyat leader, Mukhtar Ahmed Waza, at Naien in Pulwama underlined the need to initiate a sustained dialogue to resolve the dispute.
People also staged demonstrations in Arwani area of Islamabad district against the arrest of several youth by the Indian police during nocturnal raids. Senior APHC leader and the Chairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, in a statement in Srinagar, condemned the arrest of youth during night raids by the police in Arwani.
The Chairman of International Forum of Justice and Human Rights, Muhammad Ahsan Untoo, led a protest at Press Enclave in Srinagar seeking arrest of Indian Army Major, Leetul Gagoi, who used a youth, Farooq Ahmed Dar, as a human shield in occupied Kashmir by tying him with the bonnet of an army jeep, last year.
Grand Mufti-designate, Mufti Nasir-ul-Islam, in a statement in Srinagar demanded hanging of Major Gogoi. The Muslim Deeni Mahaz in a statement in Srinagar expressed serious concern over the deteriorating health of its illegally detained President, Dr Muhammad Qasim Fakhtoo, at Udhampur Jail in Jammu.
On the other hand, the Kashmiri detainees arrested by India’s National Investigation Agency and Enforcement Directorate and lodged in Delhi’s notorious Tihar Jail have written a letter to the Director General of Prisons and a court in New Delhi to lodge them together in a single cell or at least separate them from other prisoners who are in jail in criminal cases. The Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party in a statement in Srinagar expressed concern over the plight of its Chairman, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, and other Kashmiris lodged in Tihar Jail.
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