Srinagar, March 16 (KNO) : Senior vice chairman of JKLF Abdul Hameed Butt Saturday condemned the prolonged incarceration of JKLF chairman and others and condemning the nocturnal raids by police against JKLF zonal president Noor Muhammad Kalwal.
Butt as per a statement issued to KNO said arrests and nocturnal raids have been expedited at an alarming pace and political leaders and activists are being treated like criminals by police and other forces. “This ugly oppression has and will only glamorize extremism and violence,” he said.
Terming the ‘ongoing police oppression’ across Kashmir valley as ‘undemocratic and despotic’, JKLF senior vice chairman said that Malik has been slapped with PSA and placed under solitary confinement at Kot-Balwal jail. JKLF zonal organizer Bashir Ahmad Kashmiri, senior leader Sheikh Nazir Ahmad is already lodged at the same jail while as another JKLF leader Zahoor Ahmad Butt is also languishing under PSA at Islamabad Sub-jail. JKLF district president Budgam Gulzar Ahmad Pahlawan, JKLF senior activists Mushtaq Ahmad Wani of Koreg, Nadeem Ahmad of Pampore and leader Ghulam Nabi Kashmiri are also languishing in police custody.
Condemning the nocturnal raids against JKLF Zonal president Noor Muhammad Kalwal, JKLF senior vice chairman said that police yesterday night raided his relatives and houses of many neighbours at NaidKadal Srinagar., adding that police had recently raided his residence too and this police harassment is continuing unabated.
JKLF leader said that “a political leader who is present in almost all peaceful democratic programs is being hunted as if he is some unlawful person and the sanctity of houses and families is being trampled by police, which is highly condemnable.”
He said “this undemocratic, illegal and dictatorial attitude of the rulers and their authorities has and is ruining prospects of a democratic peaceful political dissent and hence promoting and glamorizing violence which is highly deplorable.”
Condemning police attitude, JKLF senior vice chairman appealed international community and human rights organizations to take a serious note of this ‘undemocratic’ attitude of rulers and use their good offices to promote democratic norms and space for political dissent.(KNO)