Massive pro-freedom demo at Jamia Masjid Srinagar

In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, people staged a massive pro-freedom demonstration at the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar, today.

Thousands of Muslims converged at the Jamia Masjid, today, to offer congregational prayers on the first Friday of the holy month of Ramadan. As the Juma prayers culminated, hundreds of youth raised high-pitched pro-freedom, pro-Islam and anti-India slogans.

People Democratic Party President, Mehbooba Mufti, in a tweet said that incidents like Indian soldiers barging into a religious place, profiling worshippers and shooting civilians at will without any fear of justice highlight the level of unaccountability pervasive across IIOJK. She said this while reacting to the yesterday’s incident in which several civilians sustained injuries after Indian troops opened indiscriminate fire on worshipers in Handwara area of Kupwara district.

Kashmir-based senior leader of Communist Party of India (Marxist) Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, in a media interview, said the Indian government is using multiple agencies as a political weapon to intimidate and silence political leaders in IIOJK. He, however, maintained that the Kashmiris would not be cowed down by such tactics. He also maintained that New Delhi’s claim of development in Kashmir is just an eyewash.

Indian police arrested a Kashmiri youth as Iqbal Mir in Dolipora Morh area of Baramulla district. The police dubbed him an over-ground worker of a mujahid organization to justify his arrest.

On the other hand, former head of the Amnesty International India, Aakar Patel, was stopped yet again by the Indian immigration authorities at Bengaluru airport from boarding his flight to the US. Earlier, Modi-led Indian government prevented Aakar Patel from travelling to the US on Wednesday.

A Hindu monk Bajrang Muni Das has hurled threats to the Muslim women to outrage their chastity in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. A video is making rounds on the social media in which Das while addressing a procession in Khairabad town of Sitapur district can be heard hurling threat to the Muslim women.

Muslim Congresswoman in the US, Ilhan Omar, has urged the Biden Administration to speak up on the ill treatment meted out to India’s Muslim minority under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She asked the Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, to explain “how are we promoting a free and open region by supporting Modi”.

A group of academics has quit the Australia India Institute at Melbourne University, Australia, citing concerns for academic freedom and interference by the Indian High Commission. A letter signed by 13 affiliated fellows sent to vice-chancellor, Duncan Maskell, on March 29 says that the Indian High Commissioner to Australia has intervened in the institute’s activities and there have been repeated instances where research or views that are unflattering to the image of India had been blanked.