ISLAMABAD:In occupied Kashmir, life came to standstill, on Monday, due to a complete shutdown against the massacre carried out by the Indian troops in Shopian and Islamabad districts, yesterday.
Call for the strike was given by the Joint Resistance Leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik. The strike also affected life in far-flung areas of Ramban district in Jammu region.
All educational institutions, markets, banks and petrol pumps remained closed while traffic was off the road in the length and breadth of the territory. Internet and train services remained suspended on the second straight day, on Monday.
Unprecedented restrictions were particularly imposed in Shopian, Kulgam, Islamabad, Pulwama and Srinagar districts. However, people defied curfew in many areas and came out to offer funeral prayers in absentia for the martyrs.
Students of Kashmir University staged massive protests in the university campus raising anti-India and pro-liberation slogans. They offered funeral prayers in absentia for the martyrs.
Traders also held a protest in Srinagar. Over a dozen were injured when the troops used force and fired bullets and pellets on protesters in Shopian, today.
The occupation authorities put Hurriyat leaders including Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai under house arrest. Muhammad Yasin Malik was arrested.
The Indian troops resorted to indiscriminate firing inside the Shopian hospital building after doctors on duty objected to troops’ intervention in the treatment of yesterday’s injured people.
Like occupied Kashmir, condemnation day was also observed in Azad Kashmir today against the killing of seventeen innocent youth by Indian forces in the Held Valley.
Call for observing the day was given by Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan to invite attention of the international community towards genocide of innocent Kashmiris and Indian state terrorism in occupied Kashmir.
A condemnation rally was taken out in Muzaffarabad, which was attended by people belonging to all walks of life.
They marched towards Gharipan Chowk amid anti-India and pro-Liberation slogans.
Addressing the rally in front of the Press Club, the speakers asked the United Nations, European Union, Amnesty International and other human rights organizations to stop India from further bloodshed of the defenseless Kashmiris.
Meanwhile, addressing a protest demonstration held by Hurriyet Conference in front of National Press Club in Islamabad today, AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider said Kashmir issue will be effectively highlighted at the international level to let the world know of the Indian brutalities on innocent Kashmiri people.
He said India has been trying to strangle the voice of Kashmiris through all means, but it cannot suppress the genuine demand for freedom.
Farooq Haider said India's two pronged strategy to quell the Kashmir issue is reflected in its killing of innocent Kashmiris in Occupied Kashmir and also through ceasefire violations at Working Boundary and the Line of Control.
He urged all the political parties to include the issue of Kashmir in their manifestoes in order to highlight the lingering dispute.
Raja Farooq Haider also urged media to play their key role in effectively portray the issue of Kashmir.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has expressed deep shock and grief at the indiscriminate, vicious killing of seventeen Kashmiri youth in Occupied Kashmir by the Indian forces.
Prime Minister called upon international community to pressurize India to allow access to fact-finding missions to occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif termed killing of Kashmiri youth by the Indian forces in repressive act as worst kind of terrorism.
Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal said the voice of Kashmiris can't be silenced with guns.
Minister of State for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb has strongly condemned the Indian state terrorism in occupied Kashmir.
In a statement, she said India could not suppress their struggle for right to self-determination through use of brute force and merciless killings.
The Minister said Kashmiris are asking why international community is silent over Indian atrocities in Kashmir.
Chairman Senate Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani has strongly condemned the brutal use of force by India in Occupied Kashmir.
In a message from Madina Munawara, Saudi Arabia, he emphasized that such cowardly actions of the occupying forces only serve to fortify the resolve of the Kashmiri people. APP/AFP