Daily Times

In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), over 50 trade union leaders and activists were detained by police in Srinagar to thwart their protest in support of the demands of agitating Indian farmers.

According to Kashmir Media Service, the protest was planned in response to the Samyukta Kisan Morcha’s call for an India-wide strike to press the Modi government to accept the agitating Indian farmers’ demands, including a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for crops. The Kashmiri trade union leaders and activists were detained by police near Pratap Park on Residency Road in Srinagar city as they were assembling for protests and taken to Kothibagh police station.

Jammu Kashmir Apple Farmers’ Federation, in a statement, said farmers and trade union members were stopped despite the protests being peaceful. The statement added the police used force and detained many union leaders including Jammu Kashmir Apple Farmers Federation’s President Zahoor Ahmad Rather.

CPI (M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami condemned the police action on the protesters. “Condemning in no uncertain terms the use of force against the peaceful protest of Apple Farmers’ Federation of India, scheme workers and CITU leaders organised in response to Grameen Bharat Bandh,” Tarigami said in a series of posts on X.

He said that scores of leaders, including Kulgam District Development Council (DDC) chairman Mohammad Afzal, Apple Farmers’ Federation president Zahoor Ahmad Rather, general secretary Abdul Rasheed, were unjustly arrested after being bundled into police vehicles. “The use of brute force against peaceful protesters is an affront to democracy and a violation of fundamental rights,” he added.