Srinagar: Hurriyat Conference (M) on Friday strongly condemned state government for imposing restrictions and curfew in Nowhatta, housing historic Jamia Masjid, and adjoining areas within the jurisdictions of five police stations in Old City.
In a statement issued here, the Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said that “now raising voice against the braid chopping of woman has become a crime in Kashmir Valley.” The amalgam also condemned government for placing its chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq under house arrest at his Nigeen residence.
“We condemn the government decision of deploying police and paramilitary forces around historic Jamia Masjid and imposing curfew and curbs in downtown, thereby barring the people from offering congregational Friday prayers at Jama masjid. This is dictatorial attitude of the ruling regime in Kashmir,” a spokesman of the Hurriyat Conference said in a statement.
He said by muzzling the genuine political rights through ‘military might’, the government was now trampling the religious rights by preventing people from offering congregational Friday prayers at the grand masjid and “it’s purely a authoritarian approach of the government.”
The Hurriyat Conference expressed serious resentment over the detention of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq at his Nigeen residence to prevent him from carrying out social, religious and political duties. “The present government has failed on all fronts and is now acting as a mute spectator over the frequent incidents of braid chopping which is left entire Valley in the grip of fear and terror. By keeping Mirwiaz under house arrest is a deliberate move to keep him away from the people, which deserve all forms of condemnations.”
The spokesman said that now raising voice against braid chopping incidents which has left the women folk of Kashmir in a deep shock seems to be a crime for the government that terms “everything as a law and order situation and justifies its curbs and huge deployment of forces to scuttle the peaceful protest programs.”
He said it was irony that all the pro-freedom leaders are either placed under house arrest or being arrested while as huge population of downtown is confined to their homes.
Hurriyat also strongly denounced the continuous house detention of aged leader Syed Ali Geelani, and arresting the JKLF chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik and lodging him in central jail Srinagar
ADVERTISEMENT
