Anantnag: Separatist leaders including Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik were injured after they were allegedly thrashed by Para-military Central Reserve Police Force in South Kahsmir’s Islamabad district on Tuesday.
    Eyewitnesses told CNS that Muhammad Yasin Malik along other separatist leaders including Javid Ahmed Mir, Shabir Ahmed Dar and Muhammad Ahsan Untoo arrived at Batingo Islamabad to express their sympathies with the bereaved family of Zahid Rasool Bhat who died in Safdarjang hospital in New Delhi after sustaining injuries at Shivnagar Udhampur when goons attacked their truck with petrol bomb.
    Witnesses added that after visiting the bereaved family, Malik and others visited the graveyard and offered ‘Fatheh Khawani’ in favour of the deceased youth.  Shortly after addressing a large gathering, Malik led a procession towards Lal Chowk. Senior separatist leader Javid Ahmed Mir told CNS that Malik was mulling to stage a sit-in at Lal Chowk but as the procession reached near highway, CRPF personnel according to Mir went on rampage and indiscriminately fired tear-smoke shells on protesters. “There was chaos everywhere. During the melee, few unbridled CRPF troopers attacked us with lathi’s and gun butts. We tried to stop them but they continuously assaulted us. Malik suffered fracture in his neck while Shabir Dar received injury in his nose,” Mir said.
    Untoo who was part of the procession alleged that after the attack, the CRPF personnel snatched Laptop from his possession and smashed it with lathi’s. “We were ruthlessly beaten up. Many protesters received wounds in CRPF action,” he said. Eyewitnesses added that it were few policemen that saved Malik and others from the wrath of CRPF personnel. “The separatist leaders were detained shortly after the incident and were taken to Police Station Saddar,” witnesses added.
    Meanwhile the incident sparked spontaneous protest and clashes in Maisuma Srinagar where protesters took to street and resorted to stone-pelting. The government forces burst tear-smoke shells to disperse the agitated youth. Locals and commuters alleged that CRPF personnel smashed windshields of many private vehicles. The clashes between police and youth disrupted normal life as all the shops and business establishments got shut and transport disappeared from the roads. (CNS)
 
‘Kashmir Million-Man-March to be organized on October 25 in America’
Keansburg, Oct 20, CNS: Former Prime Minister of Pakistan administered Kashmir Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry said that  ‘Kashmir Million-Man-March’ will be organized on October 25 this month in New York to pave way for a just and durable resolution of longstanding Kashmir dispute.’
     Addressing a gathering in Keansburg, New Jersey, he said the world community was concerned about the latest situation in Kashmir which can lead the whole region of South Asia to the nuclear disaster. He said that the world powers including the United States are trying to persuade both India and Pakistan to resume the peaceful negotiations to settle all disputes including Kashmir.
    As per the statement to CNS, Barrister Sultan urged the Pakistani and Kashmiri Americans as well as those who believe in human rights and human dignity to participate in the “Million-Man-March” to make it a great success.
    The statement reads that Chairman Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, Muhammad Yasin Malik while speaking via Skype, expressed full support to the ‘Million-Man-March. He thanked the people in the audience for expressing their solidarity with the people of Jammu and Kashmir and their willingness to help the people of Kashmir to achieve their right to self-determination.
    Malik informed the audience about the latest human rights violations taking place in Kashmir. He said PDP-BJP coalition government has handed over Jammu & Kashmir to chauvinists like RSS. He added that this coalition was directly responsible for the murder of innocent Kashmiri driver Zahid Rasool Bhat who was attacked on October 9 by these gangsters. (CNS)
 
‘Illegal hill cutting goes unabated near Mansbal Lake’
Ganderbal, Oct 20, CNS: Locals living adjacent to world famous Mansbal Lake Tuesday alleged that Hill cutting goes unabated in the Pehlipora Safapora area of district Ganderbal as a section of influential people are carrying the illegal act posing serious threat of landslides and the illegal activity according to the locals has been badly disfiguring the beauty of the surroundings of the Lake.
     Locals told CNS that by using the name of administration, some unscrupulous and influential individuals are cutting hills and selling the soil illegally. “It is a big land mafia that after using JCB’s and other machinery resort to illegal soil cutting. This mafia then sells this soil on higher rates. It is a perpetual process and so for the administration has miserably failed to curb this active mafia,” said a local.
    They said that the hill has been cut down exposing the locals to risks of landslides. “We fail to understand why the administration is silent and why no action is being initiated against this active mafia,” locals said.
   Locals alleged that the administration has not taken any step to prevent the illegal hill cutting by the mafia despite repeated pleas.
   On the behest of few influential people, some labourers have been indulging in the cutting of hillocks in the area and take the soil for sale in private trucks. A number of Deodar and other trees were also cut down, claimed the locals.
    When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Ganderbal Showkat Ajaz Bhat told CNS that the soil and hill cutting in the area is already banned and still if some unscrupulous elements are violating the law, strict action will be initiated against them. He added that all measures will be taken to stop such illegal activities. (CNS)