Thursday, March 28, 2024

No respite for IOK people as lockdown completes 10 weeks today

No respite for IOK people as lockdown completes 10 weeks today
October 13, 2019
SRINAGAR (KMS) – In occupied Kashmir, the miseries of millions of residents of Kashmir Valley and Muslim majority areas of Jammu region continue unabated as the strict lockdown imposed by the Indian government completes 10 weeks, today. Shops and main markets are shut and public transport is off the roads in the Kashmir valley and Muslim majority areas of Jammu as a mark of protest to express resentment against Indian occupation. Though private vehicles are plying on the roads but in the absence of public transport, people find it difficult to get to the hospitals and move from one place to another to meet their loved ones. They can’t even easily communicate with their relatives and friends owing to gag on internet and cell phone services. The lockdown and ban on communications has virtually cut off the Kashmir Valley from the outside world. On the other hand, Indian civil rights activists talking to reporters in New Delhi urged the Indian government to restore Articles 370 and 35A as well as mobile and internet services, remove the restrictions on the movement of people in the Kashmir Valley and take steps to bring back normalcy in the territory. Social activist, Shabnam Hashmi, on the occasion said that the abrogation of Article 370 was a mindless exercise carried out by the BJP-led government. Delhi-based journalist and writer, Revati Laul, said that the repeal of Article 370 was the main cause of trauma for the people of Kashmir. Kannan Gopinathan, the IAS officer, who resigned in protest against human rights violations in occupied Kashmir, addressing a conference in Kerala’s Thrissur city said that denial of human rights to the Kashmiri people and exclusion of a group of people in Assam in the name of Citizenship Amendment Bill are unconstitutional acts. A Marx, a human rights activist from Tamil Nadu, in his address to the conference said what is happening in Kashmir and Assam now will be repeated soon in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Slogans like ‘Reinstate peace and democracy in Kashmir and Assam’ were raised in the conference.