‘Behaviour against Malik is a clear indication that Kashmir is a police state’
Srinagar: Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) including Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Saturday strongly condemned the ‘police assault’ and use of ‘derogatory language’ against JKLF chairman, Mohammad Yasin Malik by police at Khanyar when he was on way to Jamia Masjid to lead a peaceful protest.
JRL in a statement said that “police resorted to manhandling and hooliganism against a leader who has prominence across the State for representing peoples’ aspirations.”
The leadership said that police behavior against Malik is a clear indication that Kashmir is a police state where police has been given a free hand to run its ‘writ and highhandedness’ and in a situation no Kashmiri is safe.
“When a people’s representative like Malik is manhandled by those who claim to be law enforcers what can a common Kashmiri expect from the police,” JRL said.
However, the police in a statement refuted the reports of assault on the JKLF chief.
The leadership said that Malik was on way to lead a protest called by the JRL but his vehicle was stopped and he was ‘dragged, physically assaulted and abused’ at Khanyar by a senior police officer who also spoke venomously and made derogatory remarks regarding Kashmir’s resistance leadership.
The JRL said that “today’s incident at Khanyar makes it clear that police is following the RSS diktats and the policy of repression to muzzle the genuine voices in Kashmir and their aspirations.”
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq posted a video on twitter which shows police manhandling Yasin Malik.
Strongly condemn police assault, manhandling and arrest of JKLF chief #YasinMalik by police when he was on way to #JamaMasjid to take part in a peaceful protest against unabated killings of Youth ,use of force on student and continuous illegal arrests of leaders by NIA pic.twitter.com/zyXMx2DUp7
— Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (@MirwaizKashmir) April 28, 2018
Meanwhile, despite ‘assault’ on JKLF Chief, many JRL leaders and activists assembled outside Jamia Masjid to stage a peaceful protest.
The protestors protested against killing of Kashmiri boys by forces, use of brute force against students by police and other forces and the illegal detention of dozens of resistance leaders by NIA.
They raised slogans against ‘the reign of terror’ unleashed by the government forces across Kashmir. The protestors strongly denounced the huge deployment of forces around educational institutions and use of pellets, teargas and pava shells against peaceful protesting students across Kashmir.
They said police and other government forces have choked every space for peaceful protest and a military approach was followed to force the people into a submission. “Youth are pushed to the wall due to the iron fist policy of the ruling regime which is highly condemnable,” they said.
The protestors while terming the arrests made by NIA and ED ‘totally unjustified’, demanded immediate release of Shabir Shah, Altaf Fantosh, Advocate Shahidul Islam, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Mehrajudin Kalwal, Shahid Yousuf, Farooq Dar, Nayeem Khan, Zahoor Watali.
JRL said detention of these leaders is ‘illegal’ and that they should be released forthwith.
