SRINAGAR – A shutdown has continued on Tuesday across Indian-occupiedKashmir (IoK), following deadly clashes that resulted in 19 deaths.
Indian armed police and paramilitary soldiers in riot gear fanned outacross the region and patrolled streets in anticipation of anti-Indiaprotests and clashes.
The puppet authorities also imposed a curfew in some towns in southernKashmir and in the old parts of the disputed region’s main city ofSrinagar, the urban center of protests and clashes against Indian rule.
Shops and businesses closed in other areas where no security restrictionswere in place. Separatist leaders who challenge India’s sovereignty overKashmir called for a shutdown on Monday to protest the killings.
Authorities shut schools and colleges and cancelled university exams in anattempt to stop protests by students.
Despite the suspension of classes, anti-India protests erupted at theUniversity of Kashmir, where many students gathered in the main campus inSrinagar and shouted slogans such as “Go India, go back” and demanded anend of Indian rule over the region.
Officials also halted train services and cut cellphone internet access inthe most restive towns, and reduced connection speeds in other parts of theKashmir Valley, a common government practice aimed at calming tensions andpreventing anti-India demonstrations from being organized.
Troops laid steel barricades and razor wire on roads and intersections tocut off neighborhoods as authorities anticipated widespread protests.
On Sunday, 19 people, including Indian soldiers, were martyred in threevillages of south Kashmir’s Shopian district and one youth was martyred inDialgam, a village in Anantnag district.
The killings led to massive demonstrations in many parts of the region, inwhich more than three dozen people were wounded.
On the other hand, the International Commission for Human Rights (ICHR)Chairman and the Permanent Representative to the International Human RightsAssociation of American Minorities to the UN in Geneva, Barrister AbdulMajeed Tramboo, has urged the Secretary General of Organization of IslamicCooperation (OIC), Dr Yousef Ahmad Al-Othaimeen, and the President ofEuropean Parliament, Antonio Tajani, to condemn the Bloody Sunday massacrein occupied Kashmir and prevail upon the Indian government to stop grosshuman rights violations in the territory to the immediate effect.
Barrister Abdul Majeed Tramboo in a letter to the OIC Secretary General andthe EU President said that the Kashmiri protestors were met with mightymilitary power including pellet guns that killed several youth and injuredmore than 200.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also voiced seriousconcern over the spate of killings of Kashmiri protesters in Indianoccupied Kashmir and called for an investigation.
He said it is basic principle to investigate escalating violence andprotect civilians wherever they are, whether it is in Gaza, Jammu andKashmir, or Yemen.