Shabir Ahmed Shah urges world community to take notice of increasing Indian state terrorism in IoK 

SRINAGAR, July 17 (SABAH): Senior All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leader and Chairman Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party Shabir Ahmed Shah has urged the international community to take effective notice of the increasing Indian state terrorism in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

In his message from Tihar jail, the incarcerated DFP Chairman Shabir Ahmed Shah while voicing his concern over the worsening political and human rights situation in the held territory said that the Indian occupation authorities have intensified their state terrorism in the held territory, mainly targeting pro-freedom leaders, activists and civil society members who have been critical of the Modi government’s muscular policy.

Highlighting the use of state repression in response to democratic dissent, the DFP chairman said that on the one hand witch-hunt against political, social and human rights activists goes on unabated, while on the other occupation authorities have reopened cases against hundreds of political activists. “They are being summoned to police stations every now and then, harassed and humiliated and dragged to the courts, and forced to appear in courts far away from their homes”, he said.

“Arbitrary arrests of Kashmiri political leaders and activists and booking them under black laws and leaving them to rot in jails and interrogation cells without producing in the court of law, getting them punished in fake and fabricated cases, awarding severe punishments such as death penalties, reopening 30 years old cases in which they have been already acquitted, and dragging them and their families to the courts has become a new normal in Kashmir”, he said.

Shabir Ahmed Shah said that not only political activists but members of civil society, rights defenders and even journalists were also being rounded up and put in jails. He regrettably noted that the Modi government was using its judiciary as a weapon to silence legitimate political voices in Kashmir. He said that the ruthless suppression of dissent was a serious violations of basic human rights.

Shabir Ahmed Shah said that the international community should mount pressure on India and demand the Modi government to stop the use of state repression to crush political dissent in Kashmir and using its judiciary as a weapon to punish Kashmiri leaders who have been waging a peaceful struggle to achieve the fundamental rights guaranteed to Kashmiris by no less an authority than the United Nations.