ISLAMABAD: The Hurriyat forum led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in Indian Occupied Kashmir has denounced the occupation authorities for placing the Mirwaiz under house arrest and imposing curfew across downtown, Srinagar, to prevent a march towards the Martyrs’ Graveyard at Eidgah in the city on Tuesday.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the Hurriyat leadership had called for the march to pay tributes to the prominent Hurriyat leaders, Mirwaiz Molvi Muhammad Farooq and Khawaja Abdul Ghani Lone, as well as the victims of Hawal massacre on their martyrdom anniversaries.
Mirwaiz Molvi Muhammad Farooq was shot dead by unidentified gunmen at his residence in Srinagar on 21st of May 1990.
70 mourners were killed in Hawal area of the city when Indian troops opened fire on the funeral procession of the martyr.
On the same day, in 2002, Khawaja Abdul Ghani Lone was killed by unknown assailants when he was returning from Eidgah after addressing a public gathering.
The forum spokesman in a statement issued in Srinagar said that Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was scheduled to lead a rally from Jamia Masjid Srinagar to the Martyrs’ Graveyard at Eidgah to offer Fateha for Mirwaiz Molvi Muhammad Farooq, Khawaja Abdul Ghani Lone and Hawal martyrs but the authorities put him under detention.
He termed the authorities’ move as highly undemocratic and insensitive.
“It is unfortunate that even commemorative rallies and gathering by Hurriyat are disallowed,” he said.
The spokesman said, it was not for the first time that the authorities imposed curfew, deployed troops and sealed all routes leading to the Martyrs’ Graveyard but it had been their practice for the past over a decade now.
“Imposing curbs, restrictions and caging the leadership can neither kill the reality of the Kashmir dispute and the ideology that runs deep in the heart of every single citizen of Kashmir regarding its resolution, nor will it wash away the memories of the martyrdom of great leaders and all the martyrs of Kashmir struggle from the minds of people,” he said.
He maintained that the leadership and the people of Kashmir were committed to the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute.
APP