Situation remains grim as lockdown continues on 119th day

SRINAGAR (92 News) – The situation remain grim as the inhuman lockdown and curfew continued on 119th day, on Sunday, in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IoK). The Indian police forcibly stopped at Ramban a Kashmir Solidarity march being conducted by 30 members of 11 socio-political organisations from Jammu to Srinagar to show unity with the people of the Kashmir Valley who are under strict military lockdown since 5th of August. The march started from Jammu on last Tuesday and was to conclude in Srinagar tomorrow. However, when it reached at Ramban, Indian police intercepted the participants and stopped them to proceed further. The organisers were not even allowed to address a press conference after they were stopped at Ramban. Dr Sunilam, a former member of the so-called Kashmir Assembly and Working President of Bangladesh-Bharat-Pakistan Forum, talking to reporters said that journalists and participants were manhandled by the police officials at Ramban. He said that on one hand Members of European Parliament were taken to Srinagar to showcase the normal situation in the Kashmir Valley while on the other, the representatives of 11 organisations were stopped which shows that nothing was normal there. After stopping the participants, the Indian police forcibly sent them back to Jammu. Meanwhile, the grim ground situation remains unchanged in the Kashmir Valley and Muslim majority areas of Jammu and Ladakh regions due to unrelenting lockdown and military siege on 118th consecutive day, today. The environment of fear and uncertainty continues to prevail due to heavy deployment of Indian troops and police personnel. People continue to suffer immensely owing to restrictions imposed under section 144 and suspension of prepaid mobile and internet services. On the other hand, several Hurriyat leaders have been asked to appear before court in connection with a false case registered against them in 1998. The leaders who have been asked to appear before the court include Syed Ali Gilani, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Professor Abdul Ghani Butt, Javaid Ahmed Mir, Dr Ghulam Muhammad Hubbi and Shahid-ul-Islam. Most of these leaders are either lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail and other jails or under house arrest. A Delhi-based organization of Kashmiri Pandits, the Reconciliation, Return & Rehabilitations of Jammu & Kashmir Migrants, strongly reacted to the recent statement of an Indian diplomat in the US in which he said that the Indian government would follow Israeli model to settle Hindus in occupied Kashmir. The organization in a statement deplored that it was very unfortunate that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party was misusing plight of their community to score points over the Kashmir dispute. A Kashmiri truck driver, Mohammed Maqbool, was beaten by Indian police without any reason on the Expressway in Faridabad in the Indian state of Haryana.