Ubeer Naqushbandi
SRINAGAR
Authorities caged top separatist leadership in Kashmir ahead of joint silent sit-in protest against Sainik colonies, separate Pandit townships and New Industrial Policy. However, some activists from both factions of Hurriyat Conference and JKLF “managed” to conduct protest sit-in at Kokerbazaar on Wednesday.
To thwart the scheduled joint protest program today, the police in crackdown on the pro-freedom leadership detained Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai, Ghulam Nabi Sumji, Peer Saifullah, Ayaz Akbar, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehraj-ud-din, Mohammad Ashraf Laya, Bilal Siddiqi, Hakeem Abdul Rasheed, Sayed Mohi-ud-din Andrabi, Mohammad Ayub Khan, Ghulam Mustafa Wani, Abdul Rehman Tantray, Sofi Bashir, Zahoor Ahmad Kumar, Ghulam Muhammad Hurrah, Fayaz Ahmad, Younis Ahmad Najar and dozens of other Hurriyat activists in different police stations.
Octogenarian Syed Ali Geelani is under the continuous house detention since he returned from New Delhi.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was arrested in his Nigeen home late last evening while JKLF chief was detained in pre-dawn riad early this morning.
“The policemen deployed in hundreds tried to thwart the sit-in, but our men succeeded in giving them a slip and were successful in holding sit-in protest at Kokerbazaar,” said JKLF spokesperson.
The sit-in was unique in a way that activists had sealed their mouth with black bands. “This was primarily a silent protest,” said Imtiyaz Hyder, a Hurriyat Conference (g) leader.
“Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and I have been kept under house arrest. Despite our activists we made it to Kokerbazaar,” said Hurriyat Conference (m) media advisor Shahid ul Islam.
Strongly condemning the government actions, Syed Ali Geelani said, “the continuous restriction over the peaceful political activities in the Jammu & Kashmir is a very dangerous trend which will have very serious consequences.”
“The PDP has swallowed its ‘battle of ideas’ and ‘Goli Nahi Boli’ slogans. This party has come up with a dangerous face in Kashmir. Besides, using its entire force to suppress its opponents particularly the pro-freedom camp, this party is also misusing the state machinery to its fullest to block any voice raised against its anti-Kashmir policies,” the ailing Geelani said.
He cautioned CM Ms Mehbooba Mufti and her colleagues that crackdown on separatist leadership “will have very serious consequences and they too will not escape from those situations”.
“These people (PDP members) have made Kashmiri nation an easy target of the RSS and have left the entire state on the mercy of these fanatic communal forces,” he said.
“Some ministers of PDP have been formally and directly adopted by the Sangh Parivar and have also done ‘Shudhi’ (baptize). They take every order from Nagpur (RSS Headquarters) as a holy verdict and despite knowing all this, the other people in this party are maintaining a criminal silence and to save their chairs, they are deliberately pretending as if they know nothing,” Geelani added.
He cautioned that if “Sainik and Pandit colonies concept” is not abandoned, the joint protest program of the pro-freedom leadership will continue and it will be made “more effective”.
