Srinagar: Showering bullets and pellets on Kashmiri protesters has become the “standard state response”, Joint Resistance Leadership said, while condemning the killing of yet another civilian Bilal Ahmed Khan in Gannopora Shopian and critical injuring over two dozen protesters by government in the southern Kashmir district.
JRL comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik strongly while a complete strike will be observed on August 5 against the assault on Article 35 , the strike will also be observed as a protest against the unabated killing of civilians and armed youth and maiming and injuries inflicted on youth in pellet and bullet firing.
JRL paid rich tributes to the five armed youth martyred in Shopian gunfight and said that after zuhr prayers on August 5 funeral prayers in absentia will be held across Kashmir for the civilians and armed youth killed in the recent encounters across Kashmir.
The Leadership, as per the statement, asked the people to make the strike call for August 5 and 6 a success so that a strong message goes to the international community as to how New Delhi was crushing the legitimate struggle of people through its military and deceitful means.
Paying tributes to nine armed youth killed in various encounters in the past two days in Shopian, Kupwara and Sopore and also the civilian Bilal Ahmed who fell to forces bullets at Shopian, JRL said that the youth are making the greatest sacrifice of their life for the “sacred peoples movement of self determination and an end to occupation”. “They are being forced to take to this path of Martyrdom as GOI refuses to give up its policy of repression and acknowledge that people of Kashmir will not yield to submission,” JRL said, adding, “Martyrdom of our youth is extremely sad and painful for the whole nation and puts the onus on each one of us to safeguard these sacrifices and strive all the more for our just political right.”
Strongly denouncing the inhuman practice of firing live ammunition on civilian protestors around encounter sites , JRL said that showering bullets and pellets on Kashmiri’s protesting any kind of repression has become the standard state response and encounters sites are no exception.
“Hundreds of troopers surround the area and blow up the houses in the area where the armed youth with little training but great commitment to the cause are holed up and then great claims of victory are made.”
The Leadership said that since past 70 years in general and 30 years in particular, people of Kashmir have been bearing the brunt of forces repression as Kashmir is this most militarized zone on earth, every voice of dissent is dealt with an iron fist policy which includes killing people especially the youth with bullets and lethal pellets.
The leadership said that there was hardly any day when Kashmiri people don’t shoulder the coffin of their loved ones and yet the resolve and commitment of people of Kashmir towards the movement for right to self determination remains unshaken.
“Since the past few years as repression on people has worsened we are facing multiple assaults and attacks from New Delhi. While the current assault on 35A is part of the policy to change the demographic character of the state, the sustained killing of our youth is aimed at slowly finishing off our next generation.”
Questioning the criminal silence of the world community, the Leadership said that despite the UNHRC report the conscience of international community refuses to wake up and “see how a small nation is bravely fighting to achieve the universally accepted principle of self determination granted to them by the UN against a huge nation that prides itself on being the worlds ‘biggest democracy”
