Daily Times

SRINAGAR: Amid intensified crackdown, Indian police and paramilitary forces have arrested hundreds of youth ahead of the parliamentary election scheduled to be held in Srinagar and Islamabad districts on April 9 and 12.

Police arrested at least 135 youth in Pulwama district alone in the past two weeks. Around 115 of them were lodged in Pulwama Police district, KMS reported. These youth were picked up from Karimabad, Kakpora, Lelhar, Tahab, Naira, Mitrigam, Muran, Kongan, Ruhmu and Goosu areas of the district. Locals told media that in Mitrigam village police raided several houses and arrested at least a dozen youth. In Awantipora, youth were arrested for carrying election boycott posters. Police rounded up scores of youth in Soura, Nowhata, Gojwara, Rainwari, Anchar, Rajouri Kadal and other areas of Srinagar as well. “Usually policemen knock at our doors during dead of the night. They barge into the houses and take the young boys along,” said a resident of Soura area. Many youth whose names were registered with police stations during the 2008, 2010 and 2016 uprisings have become soft targets and they are being detained without any reason. “Many youth who were arrested during 2016 uprising are being regularly summoned by police for questioning and verification,” he said. “Last night police raided many residential houses in the old city. Nocturnal raids and arrests have returned to haunt us. It seems the nineties era has returned,” he added.

In Shopian district, at least 20 youth were rounded up, so far. These people have been arrested from Imam Sahib, Harmain and Memandar areas,” the locals said.

In Kulgam district, the locals said, many youth were rounded up in Chawalgam village after PDP workers convention was pelted with stones at Dakbanglow-Kulgam. “Police have booked our kin on frivolous grounds and are now delaying their release,” they said.

The All Parties Hurriyet Conference in a statement issued in Srinagar on Sunday denounced the arrest of the youth. They said that India and its local stooges wanted to create an atmosphere of threat and intimidation to force people to vote in the election drama. The APHC said that the arrests proved that the elections would be just a military operation, and could not be termed a democratic process. APHC General Secretary Shabbir Ahmad Shah in a statement in Srinagar while paying glowing tributes to martyrs Ishfaq Majeed Wani, Advocate Jaleel Andrabi, Dr Abdul Ahad Guru and Shabbir Sidiqi said that Indian rulers were directly involved in their killing. He said that the best way to pay tribute to these martyrs at the moment was to completely boycott the Indian sham elections.

Meanwhile, Indian troops during their state terrorism killed two Kashmiri youth at Awantipora in Pulwama district.