SRINAGAR – In UK, hundreds of Kashmiris and their sympathizers held ademonstration in Luton against India’s action of placing occupied Kashmirunder military siege. Member of British Parliament, Jess Phillips, in aletter to the UK Secretary of State, Dominic Raab, urged his government tomediate between Pakistan, India and Kashmiris to ensure the rights of theKashmiri people were not infringed upon.
Kashmir Council Europe continued its protest demonstrations in Brusselsagainst India’s decision of revoking special status of Jammu and Kashmir.The KCEU Chairman, Ali Raza Syed, met high-ranking officials of EuropeanUnion’s External Service and updated them about the present situation ofoccupied Kashmir.
In occupied Kashmir, scores of people were injured some of them criticallywhen Indian troops and police used brute force against thousands ofprotesters in Srinagar.
Defying stringent curfew, thousands of people including women, children andelderly persons gathered in Soura area of Srinagar soon after Jumacongregational prayers, yesterday, and protested against New Delhi’s actionof abrogating special status of the occupied territory. A police officerconfirmed that there were around 10,000 people at the protest in Soura. Theprotesters raised high-pitched slogans like “We want freedom”, “Go India goback” and “Indian Constitution unacceptable”. Indian troops and policepushed back the demonstrators at Aiwa Bridge by firing bullets, pellets andteargas shells resulting in the injuring of many people. Some women andchildren even jumped into the river when the police used teargas andpellets against the protesters at the Aiwa bridge.
BBC Urdu quoting police sources said that during the past few days over 100incidents of massive protests had occurred during which scores of peoplehad been injured due to the use of brute force by the Indian troops. TheBBC correspondent, Geeta Pandey, who travelled for two days around occupiedKashmir, in a report wrote that thousands of gun-wielding troops patroldeserted streets that are barricaded with coils of razor wire, andresidents remain locked up inside their homes in the territory.
Meanwhile, the communication blackout continued on the 6th consecutive day,today, as the authorities keep the internet and telephone links snapped andstrict restrictions imposed. Almost all Hurriyat leaders, including SyedAli Gilani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, have been put under house arrest or injails. Over 800 political leaders and workers including even pro-Indiapoliticians like Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and SajjadLone, have been detained. The severe blockade has aggravated the situationas the people of the valley are facing severe shortage of essentialcommodities. Hundreds of labourers from Indian states are fleeing occupiedKashmir fearing violent response of people to India’s move of repealingArticle 370 and bifurcating Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories.
The sleuths of India’s National Investigation Agency arrested former memberof the so-called Kashmir Assembly, Engineer Abdul Rasheed, late Fridaynight.