KL Report
SRINAGAR
The organizers of the National Book Trust ‘Book Fair’ which is being held in Srinagar and the participant book sellers, who belong to different states of India, last day came to meet Geelani at his residence, a party statement said on Friday. It added that today Geelani was again barred from offering Friday prayers by the authorities though he examined Milli Trust of the amalgam.
“On the occasion the guests asked many questions regarding the historical perspective of the Kashmir Issue and the present situation,” amalgam’s spokesperson Ayaz Akbar informed.
“A large delegation of the organizers and the book sellers of the ongoing book fair which is being held at Kashmir Haat Srinagar came to Hyderpora to meet Geelani and held a long meeting with the pro-freedom leader during which they asked many questions about the reality of the Kashmir dispute,” he said.
“On the occasion, Geelani told them that the freedom movement of Kashmir has nothing to do with the communal disputes. Kashmir is not any Hindu-Muslim issue but it is the matter of the future of 13 million people which is still to be decided. From last 67 years, Kashmiris are struggling for their right to self determination, but India with the help of its military might want to suppress the just and genuine voice of Kashmiri people and is unleashing worst kind of atrocities upon them,” Geelani, according to the amalgam statement, told the delegation.
While answering a question about his house arrest, Geelani said that in Kashmir there is a complete ban on the “freedom of expression and my four years unjust imprisonment is a big proof for this”.
In an answer about the elections in Kashmir, the statement said, “the pro-freedom leader said that holding elections in the presence of 7.5 lakh army and one lakh police is not any democratic process but it is a military operation.”
“The delegation expressed their surprise and sorrow over such a long imprisonment of the Hurriyat Chairman and said that it is beyond their thoughts that these things can happen in a democratic system,” the Hurriyat statement claimed.
Geelani, the statement further read, told the visiting delegation, that it is their duty to raise voice against this injustice and aware the common people of India about the ‘reality of Kashmir’.
Ayaz Akbar further said that today additional police force was deployed at the main gate of the residence of Geelani, who stopped many people including journalists to meet the Hurriyat chairman.
“From 16th April of this year, Geelani has neither been allowed to offer Friday prayers and nor has been he allowed to visit any relative. Today after a long time when Geelani came out of his residence to examine the Milli Trust board, all the police personnel were alerted and started to making plans to stop him, doubting that he might offer Friday prayers in any nearby Masjid, but the pro-freedom leader after examining the board, returned back to home and police personnel got relaxed,” spokesperson said.
Terming the continuous house arrest of Geelani as illegal, Akbar said that a responsible citizen is being confined in his house without any court order or any document from the administration. “When the on duty police personnel are asked about section and act of the law according to which Geelani is being confined to his home, they express their ignorance and tell that they are only obeying the orders of their seniors,” he said.
He further said that many Indian politicians themselves termed the confinement of Geelani as illegal.
