SRINAGAR: Mahmood Ahmed Saghar, convener of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), said the crackdown on activists and religious scholars in occupied Kashmir under the notorious Public Safety Act, 1978 was a part of India’s campaign to silence the voice of the people of the disputed region.
In a statement, the APHC convener — while citing the arrest of prominent APHC leader Sarjan Barkati and religious scholars including Abdul Rashid Dawoodi, Mushtaq Ahmad Veeri and Abdul Majeed Dar — said the latest wave of arrests under the preventive custody law was an old tactic India has been employing to suppress legitimate political voices in Kashmir.
He said the recent detention spree was meant to create an atmosphere of fear amongst the Kashmiri people who have refused to follow New Delhi’s diktats.
Seeking world rights bodies’ attention towards the fast deteriorating political and rights situation in occupied Kashmir, Saghar said it was high time the world break its silence and play its much-needed role to mitigate the sufferings of the people of Kashmir, inflicted on them by India.
Saghar also urged the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to take notice of rights violations in Kashmir and stop the government of India from using laws meant to fight terrorism to suppress democratic dissent in the disputed region.
He said the “fascist regime” of Narendra Modi has crossed all limits of savagery to suppress dissent in the region. He said that after caging the entire political leadership of Kashmir the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-influenced government in New Delhi has now started to target social and religious leaders who did not hesitate in calling spade a spade.
Expressing concern over the plight of local prisoners, the APHC convener urged international rights organisations to take notice of the matter and help release the political prisoners.
