India using state apparatus to crush legitimate political struggle in IIOJK: Shabbir Shah

In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, senior APHC leader and Chairman of Jammu Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party Shabbir Ahmed Shah has expressed serious concern over the rising incidents of Indian state terrorism and fast deteriorating political and human rights situation in the territory.

In his message from Tihar jail, New Delhi, the incarcerated leader while referring to rising incidents of violence in the valley said said that on one hand India has given a license to its forces to kill innocent Kashmiris while on the other it has been shamelessly using anti-terror laws to silence legitimate political voices.

Condemning the life imprisonment to Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik, he said, Malik’s unjust sentencing and denial of right to fair trial speak volumes about how India is using its state apparatus to crush the legitimate political struggle for right to self-determination.

About the recent surge in killings of youth in Kashmir, Shah said that the systematic killing of civilians, particularly the youth, is a part of the Indian government’s deep-rooted conspiracy to change the demography of Kashmir.

“Innocent and educated youth are deliberately targeted and killed mercilessly by the occupation forces during cordon and search operation”, Shah said.

He said it was shocking to see that civil society activists, journalists and rights defenders were being detained under seditious laws and subjected to worst treatment in jails and interrogation centers.

Terming it as flagrant violations of the Geneva Convention and other world covenants the APHC leader said that terrorizing rights activists and their families were part of Indian government’s clampdown campaign to suppress dissent in the region.

“Rights activists have always been at the receiving end; they are arrested, tortured, humiliated and harassed by the Indian forces deployed in length and breadth of the valley”, he said.
The DFP leader also voiced his grave concern over the continued illegal detention of Kashmiri prisoners who have been languishing in different Indian jails.

Urging world community to take effective notice of the stepped-up human rights violations in the troubled region, he said it was high time that the global community must shun its policy of indifference and play its role to settle the lingering dispute, main cause of bloodshed in the region.

Meanwhile, Hurriyat leaders Khadim Hussain and Syed Sibt Shabbir Qummi in a joint statement issued in Srinagar strongly condemned the growing Indian state terrorism in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and paid rich tributes to the zealous Kashmiri people for continuing the resistance movement with determination against the illegal Indian occupation.

They said that despite all the barbaric tactics by Narendra Modi’s fascist Indian government, the morale of Kashmiris is high and they are firmly committed to the demand for freedom. They said that despite strict restrictions, Kashmiri youth had recently taken to the streets in Srinagar and expressed their grief and anger against India and reiterated their demand for freedom from its illegal domination. They paid rich tributes to Nilufer and Asiya, two women from Shopian who were raped and murdered by Indian forces on the 13th anniversary of their martyrdom. He paid homage to the Kashmiri youth who were martyred by the Indian troops in recent times and expressed full solidarity with their families.