Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 25: Hurriyat Conference today expressed grave concern over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir which is getting “more and more repressive” with each passing day.
The HC led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said that day in and out extreme laws are introduced to further curb people’s freedom and intimidate them into silence through fear of retribution. Sudden dismissals of Government employees without any investigation or being given a chance to be heard, is part of this policy as six more Government employees have been sacked by the government.
The statement said that as a large segment of J&K population is working in the Government sector, these laws are meant to silence them into submission, crush their freedom of expression and speech and quell any kind of dissent. “It strongly denounces this dictatorial approach to deal with people’s aspirations, as it only creates more dissent and anger”, reads the statement.
“Local media persons and media houses are also continuously being targeted and harassed through raids on their homes and offices and confiscation of their equipment while many among then are not even spared arrests. Continued raids by Government agencies on organisations and homes of people and slapping of PSA and other harsh laws on them, picking up of youth, their arbitrary arrests constant surveillance of people continues unabated across J&K as a state policy”, the statement said.
While thousands including political leaders and activists continue to languish in jails for years-on end without any remedy, with APHC chairman himself placed under arbitrary house detention for the past 26 months now”, the statement reads.
The HC said the situation in J&K is simmering and the people especially the youth feel suffocated, which can have serious consequences.
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