Srinagar, Aug 16 (KNS): Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik on Friday led a protest march at Madeena Chowk (Lal Chowk) here to protest against the attempts to abrogate Article 35-A.
The protest call as per the statement issued to KNS was given by the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik against the attacks on state subject law and plight of Kashmiri prisoners languishing in jails.
According to the JKLF spokesman, elders, youth, businessmen students along with people from all walks of life gathered at Madina Chowk and staged a peaceful protest against conspiracy to change the demography of Jammu Kashmir, fiddling with the hereditary state subject law and tarnish the unique identity of Jammu Kashmir and Plight of Kashmiris languishing in jails.
Holding placards against proposed abrogation of the state subject law and in favor of freedom and prisoners, the protesters raised passionate slogans on the occasion.
Malik addressed the gathering and said that any tinkering with hereditary State subject law will face a full-fledged agitation from Jammu Kashmir. “Any change in demography of Jammu Kashmir is detrimental to all inhabitants of this land and people of Jammu Kashmir will spill their blood to safeguard the uniqueness of this land,” he added.
Malik said that people of Jammu Kashmir will not let anyone to turn their land into another Palestine where original inhabitants were thrown out and enslaved by the Israeli occupiers.
He said that State subject law is guaranteeing our unique identity and right to self determination and hence defending it is the duty of every inhabitant of Jammu Kashmir. “People of Jammu Kashmir are one on this matter because its abrogation will affect the lives of each one of us,” he said.
Malik said that people of Jammu Kashmir are striving for their right of self determination and state subject law is directly linked with this right. “State subject law is in all respects linked to our right of self determination and any attack on it will have detrimental consequences on our national life and hence defending it is our foremost duty,” added Malik.
He said that RSS backed BJP and its allies want to fiddle with the hereditary state subject law enacted in 1927 and hence settle non-Kashmiris on this land and change the demography of this land. “This is what they have learned from Israeli Zionists who grabbed land in Palestine and turned the real inhabitants of that land into aliens. Kashmiris are a living nation and we all know and understand the intention of Indian chauvinists challenging their uniqueness and this is why every citizen from Kargil to Poonch and Doda to Srinagar are one on this matter of life and death and are ready to spill their blood and save the identity and uniqueness of their mother land,” asserted JKLF chairman.
Asking people of Kashmir to be ready for a full-fledged people’s agitation if any adverse decision id delivered by Indian Supreme Court, Malik said, “whole Jammu Kashmir will come out on roads and we will not shy away even from spilling our blood on roads and streets to defend hereditary state subject law.”
Condemning the plight of Kashmiri inmates languishing in different jails, he said that from southern districts of Kashmir to northern districts and central Kashmir, a spree of arrests is going unabated and thousands of young and old are being put behind bars and tortured physically and mentally.
Malik said that some months back, DG of police issued a statement and appealed to not involve families into hostilities. “But today villages, towns and localities of Kashmir especially in southern districts of Kashmir are witnessing a reign of fresh arrests wherein family members of those in armed and political struggle are being arrested, tortured and humiliated by police, SOG and other occupational forces,” he added.
JRL said that scores of family members of those in resistance have been arrested from Tral, Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam, Bijbehara, Sonawari and other areas and are being tortured, beaten and humiliated in lockups by police, SOG and other forces on the ‘orders of same DGP’, which is highly condemnable.
He said that Kashmiris abducted by NIA and ED and lodged at Tihar Delhi are also facing same torture. “Syeda Asiya Andrabi, Fahmida Sofi and Naheeda Nasreen who were recently shifted to this Jail have been put into different cells and are being tortured inhumanly,” he said.
Similarly in other barracks where Syed Shabir Ahmad Shah, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saif-u-ullah, Raja Meraj-u-Din Kalwal, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Zahoor Ahmad Watali, and Shahid Yousuf Shah, Muhammad Aslam Wani, Muzafar Ahmad Dar and others are facing hardships, he added.
He said that other jails like Kothuwa jail, Udhampor jail, Kot-balwal jail, Hira-Nagar jail, Srinagar central jail, Jammu Amphala Jail and other jails have been turned into worst concentration camps where inmates are tortured, beaten, put in solitary confinements and humiliated at daily basis.
Malik strongly condemned the prolonged incarceration of JKLF organizer Siraj ud din Mir, district president Abdul Rashid Magloo languishing at Kot-balwal Jail under PSA and leader Zahoor Ahmad Butt who has been arrested some two weeks back by Nowhata Police station and also Nazir Ahmad Sheikh who is serving life sentence at Kot-balwal jail. (KNS)