Hurriyat chairman and Kashmir’s chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq today urged authorities to stop the alleged harassment of Kashmiris across India in the wake of the Red Fort blast in Delhi.
Mirwaiz said that news of harassment keeps coming in from all over which is very disturbing.
“Reports have come from Himachal and some other places where Kashmiris have been harassed and in housing colonies Kashmiris are being singled out and questioned simply because of their identity. It is the responsibility of the authorities that targeting of people from Kashmir ,which has put their lives in danger are ensured safety and security,” Mirwaiz said while speaking at the Friday congregation at historic Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.
Referring to the raids on daily Kashmir Times office, one of the oldest English newspaper houses in the region, Mirwaiz lamented that press freedom has become a target of authorities and every dissenting voice from that of the authorities is seen as anti-national and a threat.
“A free and fair media is essential for democracy and silencing it weakens democratic values. KT has a great legacy of Ved Bhasin ji which the current management is carrying forward and resorting to such tactics is extremely unfortunate and uncalled for,” he said.
Yesterday, J&K Police’s State Investigation Agency (SIA) raided the KT office in Jammu as part of its probe in a case against the organisation for its alleged “involvement in criminal conspiracy with secessionist and other anti-national entities”.
After searches, the SIA said it had recovered “one revolver, 14 empty cases of AK-series weapon, three live AK rounds, four fired bullets, three grenade safety levers” and “three suspected pistol rounds”.
The editors of KT called the raid “an attempt to silence dissent.”
