Srinagar: Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq who has been placed under continuous house arrest since Juma-tul-vida (21days), was arrested by the police and forces today when he broke the cordon around his house and tried to march towards Mazar-e-Shohada Naqshband Sb as part of the joint resistance program to hold a peaceful public rally there and pay homage to the martyrs of 13th July 1931.
While strict curfew and restrictions were imposed in most districts of the valley and in downtown areas of Srinagar city by the ruling regime of BJP-PDP to disallow people and leadership from paying tributes to the martyrs of 1931, internet services and communication blockades were once again put in place.
Speaking to a few media person who managed to reach the spot despite restrictions by authorities, before his arrest, Mirwaiz asked the ruling regime that how long will it continue this policy of restrictions and repression against the people and leadership of Kashmir. Mirwaiz said tyranny and oppression have reached touched its heights in Kashmir and all rights and liberties of people have disappeared.
Repeatedly Jamia Masjid Srinagar is locked down and curfew and restrictions imposed in areas around it. While I have been under arbitrary and illegal house arrest for months on end since last year, Syed Ali Geelani has been detained at home for years together and Yasin Malik is jailed at whim, while other pro freedom leadership and associates are also targeted. When is this politics of revenge and harassment going to end he asked? Each day the charred and bullet ridden dead bodies of our youth are send to our homes and the whole valley has been converted into a killing field for our youth! Thousands of youth are languishing in jails and hundreds pushed to wall and forced to take up arms due to repeated persecution and witch hunt by authorities and police, in an otherwise peaceful political struggle.
Kashmir has become a huge jail and its inhabitants its prisoners! Mirwaiz said how long will Kashmiris be made to pay and suffer for demanding their basic political right and when will international conscience awaken to the extreme atrocities happening here, despite the fact that international media is highlighting the subjugation that we are being subject to and despite the fact that the world is aware and acknowledges our genuine struggle for justice and resolution of the dispute.
Paying tributes to the martyrs of 13th July 1931 Mirwaiz said it was the first organized mass uprising and the great martyrs of that day showed us the way to resistance against oppression and the courage to stand up against it. (KNS)
