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Srinagar, June 25, 2013 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, normal life was paralyzed, today, in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley due to the shutdown in protest against Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh’s visit to the territory.
Call for the shutdown was given by all pro-freedom leaders and organizations to send a loud and clear message to India and the world community that Kashmir is a disputed territory, which needs to be settled under the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and the Kashmiris’ aspirations. Shops and business establishments remained closed while traffic was off the road.
On the other hand, strict restrictions were imposed and the personnel of Indian police and paramilitary forces were deployed in large number in Srinagar and other major towns of the territory.
They were carrying out random frisking of pedestrians and commuters. The civilian movement was curtailed by erecting barricades and concertina wire on roads. The undeclared curfew was also imposed in downtown to prevent people from holding anti-India demonstrations.
Indian authorities put Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Syed Ali Gilani, Mohammad Yasin Malik, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza and other Hurriyet leaders under house arrest during the Indian Prime Minister’s two-day visit. The police arrested Independent member of so-called Kashmir Assembly, Engineer Abdur Rasheed and President of Doctors’ Association, Dr Ansar-ul-Hassan in Srinagar.
The veteran Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani and senior APHC leader, Shabbir Ahmad Shah in their statements urged New Delhi to read the writing on the wall and address the Kashmir dispute politically instead of looking at it through the prism of economic packages.
Hurriyet leaders including Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi Al-Safvi, Nayeem Ahmad Khan Zafar Akbar Butt, Yasmeen Raja, Muhammad Yousuf Naqash, Syed Bashir Andrabi and Abdul Ahad Parra said that today’s strike was meant to convey a strong message to the Indian rulers that they would not be welcomed in Kashmir.
An Indian trooper shot himself with his service rifle at Pir Bhadesar near the Line of Control in Rajouri. This incident raised the number of such deaths amongst the Indian troops and police personnel in the occupied territory to 278 since January 2007.
In Islamabad, the APHC-AJK Chapter led by its Convener, Syed Yousuf Naseem staged a sit-in outside the UN office in Islamabad against the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to occupied Kashmir. A memorandum highlighting the human rights abuses in occupied Kashmir was also presented to the UN office, on the occasion.
For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Phone: 92-51-4435548, 4435549
Fax: 92-51-4861736