Even candle light protest has become eye sore for rulers: JRL
Srinagar: Condemning what they termed as ‘cycle of worst human rights violations’ being committed in Kashmir by the rulers, Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) on Tuesday said that even a candle light protest has become eye sore for the perpetrators of Human Rights violations.
JRL comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik in a joint statement issued here said, “As December 10 globally is observed as human rights day it was decided to commemorate a human rights week to bring focus on the grave violations here and highlight them globally.”
However, the trio said even organising peaceful events to register protest against the ‘grave abuses’ taking place here such as candlelight protest becomes an eye sore for the perpetrators as they immediately launched a massive crackdown on leadership and the pro-freedom activists to scuttle even the peaceful programs.
They said authorities arrested all those who took part in candle light protest including Noor Muhammad Kalwal, Showkat Ahmed Baskhi, Abdur Rasheed, Muhammad Yasin Bhat and Sheikh Abdur Rasheed. “These leaders were detained during nocturnal raids on their residences, which reflected the ultimate frustration and the worst form of authoritarianism,” the statement reads.
“While Geelani and Mirwaiz remain caged in their homes, other leaders including Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai and Bilal Sidique too have been placed under house detention while as Malik has been lodged in police custody since the commencement of Panchayat elections where his health has deteriorated since past one week after which he has been hospitalised,” the statement added.
They said that every form of peaceful means of protest against HR violations or expression of dissent is crushed or forcibly disallowed making hartals the only option available. The trio said that “while all peaceful means of protest stands choked whosoever raises voice is rewarded punishment in the form of draconian PSA.”
“Because of the fact that every space for youth has been squeezed, they fell pushed to the wall and many forced to pick up arms to fight this state aggression and terrorism,” they said.
JRL made it clear that by detaining the leaders, lodging them in jails, and scuttling peaceful means of protests won’t break the resolve of neither the resistance leadership nor the people of Kashmir.
They urged every segment of the society to follow the programs announced by the JRL in connection with the ongoing HR week in a bid to wake up the international community.
The leadership urged the world peace organizations, international community, Amnesty International Asia Watch, UNHRC and ICRC to take note of the urgent Kashmir situation where innocent people are subjected to ‘repression’ and even babies not spared the pellets and build pressure on New Delhi to stop the grave human rights violation forthwith.
KV News
