Shutdown paralyses normal life in IOK

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Speakers urge trade sanctions on India

Srinagar, February 09 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, normal life was paralyzed due to complete shutdown on the occasion of the seventh martyrdom anniversary of Kashmiri leader, Muhammad Afzal Guru, today.

Call for the strike was given by the All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman, Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led Hurriyat forum, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and other pro-freedom leaders and organizations. All shops and business establishments were closed while traffic was off the road. Stringent measures in the name of security were taken to prevent anti-India protests. Hundreds of personnel of Indian army, police and paramilitary forces were patrolling deserted streets in the territory, which already continues to remain under military lockdown and gag on internet on 189th consecutive day, today.

Hurriyat leaders and organizations have also called for complete shutdown on Tuesday to mourn the martyrdom anniversary of another prominent liberation leader, Muhammad Maqbool Butt. India had hanged Muhammad Afzal Guru in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail on 9th February, 2013 and Muhammad Maqbool Butt in the same jail on 11th February, 1984. Their bodies remain buried in the premises of the jail.

Indian police registered a case against Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front over calling for shutdown in the Kashmir Valley on the martyrdom anniversaries of Muhammad Maqbool Butt and Muhammad Afzal Guru. A JKLF spokesman in a statement in Srinagar condemned the registration of the case, saying that India would never be able to suppress the Kashmiris’ freedom struggle by the dint of force.

Police arrested five youth during cordon and search operations in Badgam and Bandipora districts.

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in a tweet said that the BJP government has made a prison out of the beautiful land of Jammu and Kashmir. She said continued internet blackout, illegal detentions and archaic laws were slapped on popular politicians in order to keep them silent.

In Toronto, the speakers at a seminar urged India to immediately lift the inhuman military siege on the eight million people in the occupied territory. The seminar was organized by the Friends of Kashmir, Canada. The speakers called upon the Indian government to withdraw all its troops from Kashmir to create conducive environment for the plebiscite enshrined in the UNSC resolutions on Kashmir. They also urged the United Nations and other relevant forums to investigate all massacres, gang-rapes, fake-encounters, forced disappearances, and willful blinding with pellet guns by the Indian forces. They appealed to the world powers to impose trade sanctions on India for its crimes against humanity in Kashmir. Among those who addressed the seminar included Consul General of Pakistan in Toronto, Abdul Hameed, and prominent Muslim scholar, Zafar Bangash.