The authorities in occupied Kashmir have put almost entire Hurriyat leadership under house arrest or behind the bars to prevent them from participating in the sit-in protest scheduled to be held at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Thursday.
Call for the peaceful protest has been jointly given by top Hurriyat leaders, Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik against anti-Kashmir policies of India including construction of separate townships for Kashmir Pandits, colonies for Indian soldiers, harassment of Jammu Muslims and India’s new industrial policy in Kashmir, Kashmir Media Service reported.
The Hurriyat leaders, who have been arrested or put under house detention, include Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Aasiya Andrabi, Hakeem Abdul Rasheed, Bilal Sidiqi, Raja Meraj-ud-Din Kalwal, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza, Javaid Ahmad Mir, Showkat Ahmad Bakhshi, Muhammad Shafi Lone, Ayaz Akbar, Shahid-ul-Islam, Mir Siraj-ud-Din Dawood and Muhammad Ishaq Ganai.
Meanwhile, Syed Ali Gilani in a statement denounced the curbs on pro-freedom leadership.
He said that Mehbooba Mufti-led puppet regime had surpassed all previous records of muzzling peaceful voices of the Kashmiri people.
Kashmir has been practically handed over to the Indian police and they want to silence every such voice which is raised against the anti-people policies of the authorities, he said.
Hurriyet leaders including Ghulam Nabi Sumjhi, Muhammad Yousuf Naqash and Ghulam Ahmad Gulzar in their statements issued in Srinagar condemned the illegal detention of Hurriyet leaders and activists.
Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Dukhtaran-e-Millat and Tehreek-e-Muzahamat in their separate statements while denouncing the crackdowns on the Hurriyet leaders said that the liberation struggle could not be suppressed through such tactics.
