Srinagar: Members of Kashmir High Court Bar Association on Saturday took out a protest rally here against all the communal and fanatic forces who have carried attacks on Muslims including those from Kashmir in Jammu.
The lawyers took out a procession from District Court Complex Moominabad Batamaloo in which hundreds of lawyers participated.
The lawyers’ body strongly condemned the harassing, beating, abusing and intimidating of Kashmiri Muslims, who are living in different parts of Jammu and are conducting their business and are pursuing their studies either in Jammu or else in other parts of India.
The lawyers’ body also condemned setting properties on fire and causing damage to shops, vehicles etc. belong to Muslims.
They called for an end to these atrocities and appealed the International Community including United Nations, Amnesty International, Asia Watch and other human rights organizations of the world as also members of Indian Civil Society to come to the rescue of the people of Kashmir and save them from the brutalities being inflicted on them by the ruthless communal and fanatic forces of Jammu and other places of India.
“In an Executive Committee meeting held here today it was stated that Kashmiri Muslims living in Jammu and the Muslims of Jammu are so frightened that they stayed back in their homes on Friday and did not offer Friday prayers to avoid being targeted,” a spokesman of the lawyers’ body said in a statement issued here.
“It was also stated that at several places, the government owned residential quarters in which Kashmiri Govt. employees are putting up were stoned by these hoodlums belonging to RSS and other Hindu fanatic groups and the police did not stop them from doing so and watched the same as silent spectators, which is highly deplorable.”
In Bihar, Dehradun, Chandigarh, Aligarh and other parts of India, the statement said, Kashmiri students have been beaten to pulp and asked to leave those places forthwith, “which is barbaric and shameful.”
“In order to show solidarity with their Kashmiri brethren, the Bar Association also decided to support the call given by Kashmir Traders Federation for February 17.”