Complete shutdown today in occupied Kashmir against polls, NIA aggression

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: In occupied Kashmir, the Joint Resistance Leadership while releasing the protest calendar has called for a complete shutdown in the territory, tomorrow, on the first phase of the so-called Indian parliamentary elections as well as brutal measures against the Kashmiri people and their leadership. The JRL in a statement in Srinagar, on Wednesday, said the strike is also aimed to protest against the “NIA aggression which includes the shifting of JKLF Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik to Delhi’s Tihar jail under the pretext of questioning by the National Investigation Agency, rigorous questioning of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in Delhi and sustained interrogation and repeated summoning of two sons of APHC Chairman Syed Ali Gilani to Delhi by NIA.

The shutdown will also be observed against the closure of Kashmir’s main highway for civilians and recent attack by Indian police and forces on inmates in Srinagar central jail. The strike will be held on the rest of the polling days as well.

A Delhi court, on Wednesday, sent the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Muhammad Yasin Malik, into the custody of India’s infamous National Investigation Agency till 22nd of this month in the name of interrogation in a fake case registered against him.

According to Kashmir Media Service,Muhammad Yasin Malik was shifted to Tihar Jail after India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) secured his production remand in connection with a false case registered against him.

The JKLF Chairman was arrested on February 22, 2019 from Srinagar and later shifted to Kot Bhalwal Jail after being booked under draconian law, Public Safety Act. He will be facing questioning by the NIA now. The NIA had approached a special court in Jammu, seeking Yasin Malik’s remand for custodial interrogation in the case.

It is to mention her that the JKLF was recently banned by the Indian government for its pro-freedom activities in occupied Kashmir.

On the other hand, the High Court of occupied Kashmir has reserved its judgment on a plea of India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking re-opening of three-decade-old cases registered against Muhammad Yasin Malik.

Meanwhile, the New York-based International human rights watchdog, Human Rights Watch, while criticizing India has said that the beleaguered people of occupied Kashmir were facing a new challenge after the Indian authorities closed Srinagar-Jammu highway to civilians for two days every week.

The rights body Asia Director, Meenakshi Ganguly in an article also said the muscular approach may also have encouraged a culture of collective punishment against Kashmir’s Muslim citizens, with mobs carrying out attacks on students and traders in various cities across India.