Day: January 16, 2022

Srinagar, January 16, 2022 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, a massive fire broke out inside ‘Sherwani Hall’ in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. The fire broke out around 2:15 PM this afternoon inside the structure used as banquet hall for political and social functions. A Fire and Emergency Department official confirming it to media that men and machinery were on job to contain spread of the blaze.

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Islamabad, January 16, 2022 (PPI-OT):When World Religion Day is being celebrated across the globe, today, India, under fascist Narendra Modi, has become a dangerous country for Muslims and Christians. A report released by Kashmir Media Service, today, said India has no right to celebrate World Religion Day when it is denying religious freedom to its minorities. The persecuted religious minorities in India have nothing to celebrate the day, it added.

It said India is witnessing serious violations of religious freedom and religious intolerance in the country is growing under Modi’s right-wing government. It said the Modi regime is working on a Hindutva agenda to militarize the whole society against Muslims and other religious minorities.

The report said religious minorities are experiencing systematic violence and discrimination in India, adding religious minorities are persecuted physically, psychologically and economically in the country.

It lamented that India, under Modi, was witnessing a rising number of attacks on religious minorities and the BJP government was giving impetus to Hindu extremists to violate rights of religious minorities as the Hindutva leaders were openly calling for violence against religious minorities.

It deplored that laws were being passed to criminalize their religious practices, food habits and even businesses. The US State Department, it said, has released its international religious freedom report, which paints a dark picture of the situation for religious minorities in India.

The report said, apart from US report, reports by Mumbai-based Centre for Study of Society and Secularism and UK-based Minority Rights Group International both have indicated that minority groups in India are increasingly encountering hate crimes, such as lynching, threats, attacks on places of worship and forced conversion.

It said that 2021 was a year of fear, violence and harassment for Muslims and Christians of India as witnessed in hate speeches of Dharma Sansad, Haridwar. In the first nine months of 2021, it pointed out, there were at least 300 acts of violence directed against religious minorities across the country. And as the Bulli Bai incident demonstrated, Hindu far right’s attacks on religious minorities will likely continue with force in the new year, it added.

The report said Christians across India are also facing similar hate and violence. Laws banning conversion are being enacted state after state, and Christians are being blamed for forcibly converting poor Hindus and tribals, it said.

The report maintained that the persecution of religious minorities in India had unmasked the true face of the so-called world’s largest democracy and attacks on religious minorities, especially Muslims and Christians, were a challenge to the world and the global community must come forward to stop persecution of religious minorities in India.

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New Delhi, January 16, 2022 (PPI-OT):The Editors Guild of India has condemned what it termed as ‘coup’ at Kashmir Press Club; and slammed the administration in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir to smother press freedom in the territory with help of police who have been “brazenly complicit in it”.

Editors Guild of India in a tweet from its official twitter handle said, “The Editors Guild of India is aghast at the manner in which the office and the management of Kashmir Press Club, the largest journalists’ association in the Valley, was forcibly taken over by a group of journalists with the help of armed policemen on January 15, 2022.”

Press Club of India also expressed its deep concern with the developments with Kashmir Press Club. It demanded that the democratic process of holding elections be allowed in a peaceful manner. Srinagar-based renowned journalist Kamran Yousuf said, amid presence of police personnel, Kashmir Press Club was taken over by a group of journalists led by Saleem Pandit, Zulfkar Majid and Arshid Rasool, that many termed was an illegal move while a previous body elected democratically was thrown out.”

PDP Chairperson Mehbooba Mufti said, “The state sponsored coup at KPC would put the worst dictators to shame. State agencies here are too busy overthrowing elected bodies and firing govt employees instead of discharging their actual duties. Shame on those who aided and facilitated this coup against their own fraternity.”

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Srinagar, January 16, 2022 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the High Court Bar Association (HCBA) has urged India and its local regime to immediately release the Kashmiri political prisoners detained under draconian laws Public Safety Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, lodged in different jails of India and the territory in view of the grim Covid-19 and Omicron situation.

The HCBA spokesman, G. N Shaheen Advocate in a statement issued in Srinagar said the threat posed by the 3rd wave to the general public and particularly jail inmates is most disturbing and serious in nature and the authorities should review the cases of prisoners lodged in congested jails.

He said that HCBA has received disturbed reports through the families of political detainees about the physical and mental health of the prisoners inside the jails. The spokesman said, the death of Farooq Ahmad Wani of Saidpora in Kupwara district jail is deeply disturbing and painstaking which has caused a serious apprehension in the minds of the families about the conditions of their relatives, languishing in the jails.

He said as per the unofficial statics more than 5000 Kashmiri boys are in jails ether under PSA or UAPA since August 2019 and legal process of release through courts has hampered due to Covid restrictions. Hence, he added, the authorities should release all Kashmiri political detainees on humanitarian basis.

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Srinagar, January 16, 2022 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, two months after the Hyderpora fake encounter killings, a family of one of the three martyred civilians Muhammad Altaf But is still waiting for the magisterial probe into the incident.

On 15 November, last year, three civilians Muhammad Altaf Butt, a resident of Barzulla; Dr. Mudasir Gul, a resident of Budgam and Amir Ahmad Magray, a resident of Ramban, were killed in the fake encounter in Hyderpora area of Srinagar. Police alleged that the youth were martyred in a gunfight.

However, the families of Butt and Gul raised questions about the police claim and demanded an independent probe into the incident. On 19 November, a magisterial probe was initiated into the incident and the report was supposed to be submitted within 15 days. However, the outcome of the investigation is yet to be made public.

Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, Saima Butt, niece of Muhammad Altaf, said that two months have passed neither the magisterial report has been made public nor has the family been provided the FIR, autopsy or ballistic report. Butt said that the family had also requested for a fresh FIR into the “murder” of their kin. Sharing Butt’s tweet, senior National Conference (NC) leader Ruhullah Mehdi deplored that the family is alone in the quest for justice.

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Srinagar, January 16, 2022 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, APHC leader Khadim Hussain has said that Narendra Modi’s fascist Indian government is severely hurting the religious sentiments of Kashmiri Muslims and is rapidly advancing its nefarious agenda of converting Muslim-majority status of the territory into a minority.

According to Kashmir Media Service, Khadim Hussain in a statement issued in Srinagar strongly condemned the order of the authorities in which students, teachers and administrative staff of all colleges in the occupied territory were required to participate in the Hindu religious festival “Surya Namaskar” (Sun salutation). He added that the said order of the authorities was very shameful which showed the sectarian mentality of the Indian rulers.

He said the Narendra Modi-led fascist Indian government has kept the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar closed for the last two years and Kashmiri Muslims are not allowed to offer congregational Friday prayers in the mosque. Khadim Hussain said the main Muharram processions in the occupied territory have been banned for the last 34 years and the mourners have been tortured and arrested and thrown behind the bars. He said all these acts are a clear interference in the religious affairs of Kashmiris, adding that Modi’s Hindutva government wanted to turn Kashmir into Kufristan again.

He said that the nefarious conspiracies and actions of the fascist BJP against the Muslims of IIOJK were eye-opening for today’s civilized world which had to abandon its criminal silence and immediately come forward for freedom of subjugated Kashmiris, their religious identity and civilization. Khadim Hussain said the people of Kashmir reject all the heinous acts and actions of India and reiterate to give any type of sacrifices for the protection of their freedom, religious identity and civilization.

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Srinagar, January 16, 2022 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, a policeman and a civilian were injured in a grenade attack in Saraf Kadal area of Srinagar, today. Unknown attackers lobbed a grenade towards a joint team of Indian police and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at Saraf Kadal, resulting in injuries to a policeman and a civilian.

The injured were identified as Sergeant Mehraj Ahmad, posted at Police Post Fateh kadal, who suffered splinter injuries in the chest and a civilian Sartaj Ahmad Butt, 27. He suffered injuries in both legs.

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Srinagar, January 16, 2022 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Vice Chairman, Shabbir Ahmad Shah has denounced the arbitrary arrest of eight youth from Budgam and other areas.

Illegally detained Shabbir Ahmad Shah in a message from Indian infamous Tihar jail, New Delhi, said that the overwhelming majority of the people of Kashmir endorsed the right to self-determination enshrined in the United Nations Security Council resolutions through their persistent rejection of Indian illegal occupation since 1947.

The strong resistance movement launched by the freedom-loving people of Kashmir bears testimony to the fact that the people of Kashmir want a peaceful resolution to the Kashmir dispute, keeping in view the Kashmiris’ aspirations, as recognised by the world community, he added.

The APHC Vice Chairman, expressing deep sorrow over the Indian illogical stubbornness, ruthless killings of the innocent people, random arrests of youth, humiliating the common masses on one pretext or the other and denial of political space, freedom of expression and civil liberty across the besieged territory, said an indigenous popular movement, bearing legitimacy and recognition by the United Nations and international community, cannot be deterred by military power.

He urged the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, to take serious action against the Indian hooliganism, pillage and widespread genocide and help resolve the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN resolutions to which India is also a signatory.

Paying rich tributes to the Kashmiri martyrs and illegally detained Hurriyat leaders and activists languishing in different jails of India and the territory, Shabbir Ahmad Shah said, “It is our collective responsibility and moral obligation to display, valour, vigour, patience and strong unity to take the ongoing resistance movement to its logical conclusion despite the use of brute military force by India.”

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