Srinagar, January 25 (KNO) : Chairman of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Muhammad Yasin Malik was on Friday arrested by police along with Vice Chairman Mushtaq Ajmal from JKLF office at Abi-Guzar and shifted to police station Kothi-bagh.
“Police today afternoon raided the office of JKLF and immediately took Yasin Sahib in custody ahead of Republic Day tomorrow,” JKLF spokesman said in a statement issued to KNO.
Before his arrest, Malik while speaking to media persons outside JKLF office, said that a nation that propagates to be the biggest democracy of the world but actually believes in putting its political opponents and freedom seekers in jails and incarcerations’ that too in the name of same democracy, has no right to call itself a democratic country and thus defame and disgrace real democracy and human norms.
“India in fact is subjecting the people of Jammu Kashmir to worst kind of oppression and torture from many decades. This is a glaring example of its unwillingness to honor freedom and human rights of the people.
Therefore the republic day of a nation that has snatched the freedom of a poor nation and is constantly denying this right of people, cannot be a day of happiness for the oppressed People,” he said.
Malik said that people of Kashmir will observe a complete shutdown and blackout on 26th January as a mark of protest against the ‘travesty of democracy’ by India in Jammu Kashmir.
“India celebrates its republic day on 26th January every year and calls itself the biggest democracy of the world but this is the nation that has snatched the democratic right of Kashmiris by its military might and is continuously denying Kashmiris this right,” he said.
He said it was India and its leaders like Jawahar Lal Nehru who pledged before the international community about giving Kashmiris the right of self-determination but today Kashmiris are being killed, maimed, arrested, raided, humiliated and suppressed for demanding the fulfillment of the same promises and pledges.
“The democracy that is hell bent upon ripping apart all democratic norms to suppress a tiny nation like Kashmir, can only be termed as dictatorial and despotic,” he said.
Malik said that “the Republic Day of a nation that has by military might snatched the freedom of a poor nation and has denied us our basic democratic right can never be the day of delight for the oppressed people of Kashmir and because of this we Kashmiris are compelled to observe this day as a black day.”(KNO)