NEW DELHI – In New Delhi, over 200 prominent Indian writers includingArundhati Roy signed a joint petition against the politics of hate beingpursued by Bharatiya Janata Party urging the Indian voters to defeat theBJP in upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The writers said hate politics has been used to divide the country, createfear and exclude more and more people from living as full-fledged citizens.India will go to polls in seven phases, starting 11th of this month.
On the other hand, In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops launched massivecordon and search operations in all major South and North Kashmirdistricts, today (Wednesday).
The troops during the operations sealed all entry and exit points andconducted door-to-door searches in Bandipora, Baramulla, Kupwara, Shopian,Pulwama and Kulgam districts. The authorities booked a youth, Aijaz Ahmed,under Public Safety Act, in south Kashmir and shifted him to Kot BhalwalJail in Jammu. Besides, India’s National Investigation Agency arrested fromDelhi Airport a Kashmiri youth, Nisar Ahmed Tantray.
The Government Degree College Ganderbal reverberated with pro-freedom,pro-Pakistan and anti-India slogans on the arrival of the pro-IndiaNational Conference President, Farooq Abdullah in the college to address aconvention of party workers. Students gathered in the college campus inlarge numbers and shouted anti-India slogans.
India’s Enforcement Directorate has opposed the bail plea of senior APHCleader, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, in a false case registered against him. IndianSupreme Court cancelled the bail of a noted Kashmiri businessman, ZahoorAhmed Watali, who is languishing in Tihar Jail on a baseless charge.
The Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Movement Chairman, Mir Shahid Saleem, in astatement in Jammu called upon India to positively respond to the pointsraised by 50 members of European Parliament in a joint letter addressed toIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The parliamentarians had asked Indiato impose ban on the use of lethal weapon, pellet gun, in occupied Kashmir.
Meanwhile, in their ongoing onslaught on local media in the occupiedterritory, the Indian authorities banned advertisements to an Urdu daily,Kashmir Uzma. Srinagar-based two widely read newspapers Greater Kashmir andKashmir Reader are already facing such ban. Kashmir Editors Guild in astatement regretted the move saying the ban is continuation of theonslaught against Kashmir media since 1989.