KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
All Jammu and Kashmir Students Union (AJKSU) Wednesday evening organized a candle light protests against the “day-to-day” harassment of Kashmiri students in different colleges and universities outside the Kashmir and recent civilian killings in North Kashmir.
Scores of students, who claimed to be apolitical, expressed deep shock over the spate of killings following the 12th April incident in Handwara and Kupwara.
The protesting students said that after killing the innocent civilians, the government indulged in “shameful character assassination” of the minor girl, where a video of doubtful authenticity was circulated all over the internet by the J&K Police, in order to prove that the accusations of molestation are false.
“Now we are learning that the minor girl and her father have been detained. All of this is deeply troubling.”
“First, the police have no right to make public the identity or the statement of the victim in a molestation case, that too of a minor girl. Uploading and circulating her video is another level of brazen illegality. Second, we don’t know if the young girl has given the statement under any duress or not. Third, even if her statement is true, the Army still had no right to fire at and murder unarmed civilians expressing outrage. Further, we have learnt that the minor girl and her father have been detained and no access to them is being allowed for support groups. We demand that human rights and civil society groups be allowed to meet the child and her father, so that they can have access to justice and support,” the protesting students said.
The students said that outside state students are welcome here provided they don’t hurt the sentiments of the people here. “Kashmir is an unresolved issue that needs to be addressed. The outside students have no right to offend the local sentiments here,” they said.
Criticizing New Delhi based media for the biased and one-sided reportage, the protesting students said that media houses in India are not doing a service to the nation but they are misleading the one billion people of India and keeping them in dark about the stark realities of Kashmir. (CNS)
