IOK lockdown reaches 118th day

By KMS
Sunday – December 1, 2019
SRINAGAR (India): In Indian occupied Kashmir (IOK), the grim ground situation remains unchanged as Muslim majority areas of Jammu and Ladakh regions continue to be under strict military lockdown on 118th consecutive day, on Saturday.

According to Kashmir Media Service (KMS), the environment of fear and uncertainty continues to prevail due to heavy deployment of Indian troops and police personnel.

The people of IOK continue to suffer immensely owing to restrictions imposed under section 144 and suspension of prepaid mobile and internet services.

Several Hurriyat leaders have been asked to appear before court in connection with a false case registered against them in 1998. The leaders who have been asked to appear before the court include Syed Ali Gilani, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Abdul Ghani Butt, Javaid Ahmed Mir, Ghulam Muhammad Hubbi and Shahid-ul-Islam. Most of these leaders are either lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail and other jails or are under house arrest.

Meanwhile, the Indian police forcibly stopped at Ramban a Kashmir solidarity march being conducted by 30 members of 11 socio-political organisations from Jammu to Srinagar to show unity with the people of the IOK Valley who are under strict military lockdown since August 5.

The march started from Jammu on last Tuesday and was to conclude in Srinagar today. However, when it reached at Ramban, Indian police intercepted the participants and stopped them to proceed further. The organisers were not even allowed to address a press conference after they were stopped at Ramban.

Sunilam, a former member of the so-called Kashmir Assembly and working president of Bangladesh-Bharat-Pakistan Forum, talking to reporters said that journalists and participants were manhandled by the police officials at Ramban.

He said that on one hand members of European Parliament were taken to Srinagar to showcase the so called normal situation in the IOK Valley while on the other, the representatives of 11 organisations were stopped which shows that nothing was normal there. After stopping the participants, the Indian police forcibly sent them back to Jammu.

On the other hand, a Delhi-based organisation of Kashmiri pandits, the reconciliation, return and rehabilitations of Jammu and Kashmir migrants, strongly reacted to the recent statement of an Indian diplomat in the United States (US) in which he said that the Indian government would follow Israeli model to settle Hindus in IOK.

The organisation in a statement deplored that it was very unfortunate that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was misusing plight of their community to score points over the Kashmir dispute.

Indian police thrashed a Kashmiri truck driver, Muhammad Maqbool, in Faridabad in the Indian state of Haryana.

Mohammed Maqbool, who hails from Yusmarg area of Budgam district of occupied Kashmir, told media that he was on his way to Srinagar when the policeman thrashed him and his friends for stopping the truck near Maujpur toll plaza on the expressway.

He said, “We were carrying pipes from Kolkata to Srinagar for a government project. In Faridabad, near the Maujpur toll plaza, I stopped the truck as I wanted to take some rest and let someone else drive. As I stepped out of the truck, the policemen came in a van and shouted at me.”

He said that the policemen pinned him to the ground and kicked him. “They also thrashed my friends and later took Rs 30,000 from our wallets,” he claimed.

In a video that later surfaced on social media, Maqbool showing his injuries said that he was beaten brutally for an hour.


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