Langate legislator protest against Shopian killings, detained
Handwara: Amid restrictions, Awami Itehaad Party (AIP) president and MLA Langate, Engineer Abdul Rasheed Sheikh on Monday lead a protest march in Handwara against the Shopian killings.
According to the statement issued here, the protesters holding black flags were chanting anti-Army slogans and condemned national media for provoking and sheltering the killers in uniform.
The spokesman however, said that a police contingent stopped the march from proceeding towards main Chowk Handwara and detained Er Rasheed.
Prior to his detention, Er Rasheed appealed world community to take notice of sufferings of Kashmiris.
“The political dispensation in New Delhi has given Army and other security agencies the liberty to kill Kashmiris. It is disgracing that on an occasion when Army repeated its dirty designs in Shopian by killing six innocent Kashmiris, Supreme Court stayed the proceedings against the FIR lodged to look into previous killings. There can be nothing shameful than the fact that state Govt. softened its stand in the supreme court today over the FIR issue,” he said.
He said that while Kashmiris had never hope of getting justice but the stand of state government and the Supreme Court judgment further strengthened the perception that Indian institutions treat Kashmiris as their enemies and denying them justice is the new narrative of nationalism.
“The way Indian media is giving cover to the killings is shameful and should be a matter of great concern for all those who want to uphold human rights,” he said.
He appealed the international community not to be a mute spectator to the killings in Kashmir and said that those talking of radicalization in Kashmir are in fact trying to divert the attention from the real issues.
“Army has lost the moral authority to claim being a well wisher and pro-people to Kashmiris. Whatsoever happened in Shopian yesterday evening is enough to understand the ill designs of New Delhi and it is evident that New Delhi wants to control J&K through the barrel of the gun,” he said.
He said that the incident has yet again highlighted the need to revoke the dirty AFSPA which has given army a free hand to do what they want. “One should not forget the fact that Indian defense Minister Nirmala Sita Raman only yesterday said that there is no question of even discussing revocation of AFSPA and her words seem to have given black sheep in army courage and a reason to murder six more Kashmiris in Shopian,” he added.
KV Correspondent
