The Kashmir Valley along with at least two Muslim majority towns of the Jammu region remained under round-the-clock curfew in most areas for the sixth day-straight on Friday without any relaxation.
Kashmir’s chief Muslim cleric and influential separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq termed the restrictions which have resulted into tremendous hardships to over six million population, including shortage of food and medicine, as “collective punishment being inflicted upon the entire population of Valley for pursuing their just cause for the resolution of Kashmir issue.”
The Mirwaiz in a signed statement here alleged that the process was accelerated after thousands of Kashmiris were able to give expression to their demand at the Lal Chowk rally on Id day which among others was addressed by him. “While the entire population of the Valley has been caged in homes, an all out war has been declared against them as all repressive measures are being used to quell and crush the resistance movement and intimidate people for daring to raise their voice for their fundamental political right and defying the Indian state.”
He added that “the daily unabated killing of unarmed civilian protesters at the hands of Armed Forces is being coupled with strictly enforced round-the-clock curfew, inaccessibility to essentials like medicine, milk and baby food, deliberate disruption to water and electric supply, disallowing ambulances, medical staff and doctors from reaching hospitals, shortage of blood in hospitals, severe thrashing of people if sighted out of their homes etc to teach people a lesson. The local print and electronic media have also been heavily clamped down upon.”