SRINAGAR – In occupied Kashmir, the normal life was paralysed by completeshutdown, today, against the drama being enacted in the name ofparliamentary elections in the territory and brutal measures against theKashmiri people and their leadership.
Call for the strike was given by the Joint Resistance Leadership comprisingSyed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik. The shutdownwas also aimed at registering protest against the victimization of Hurriyatleaders and their family members by India’s infamous National InvestigationAgency and the closure of Kashmir’s main highway. All shops, businessestablishments and educational institutions were closed while attendance ingovernment and private offices was very thin. Transport was also off theroad. The JRL has also called for shutdown in the areas during the nextphases of the polls.
The authorities had deployed over 32,000 additional Indian troops andpolice personnel for the first phase of Indian elections in Baramullaconstituency, today, vindicating the Hurriyat stance that the parliamentaryelections in the territory were nothing but a military exercise.
The authorities shifted over two dozen Kashmiri political prisonersincluding Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami, Dr Abdul Hameed Fayyaz, and Jamiat AhleHadith Vice President, Mushtaq Ahmed Veeri, from Jammu’s Kathua jail to theIndian state of Haryana. The authorities booked four persons includingTehreek-e-Hurriyat District Kulgam President, Muhammad Ramzan Sheikh, underblack law, Public Safety Act.
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Hurriyat leaders and organizations including Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai andAbdul Hameed Butt in their separate statements strongly denounced theshifting of illegally detained Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir LiberationFront, Muhammad Yasin Malik, from Jammu to New Delhi. Muhammad AshrafSehrai urged India to resolve the Kashmir dispute instead of harassing anddetaining Hurriyat leaders.