Daily Times

In Indian-held Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred three Kashmiri youth in Pulwama district on Sunday.

The youth were killed by the troops during a cordon and search operation in Gulshanpora area of Tral in the district. Police claimed that the youth were killed during an encounter with the troops. The martyred youth were identified as Umer Fayaz Lone, Faizan Hamid and Adil Bashir Mir.

Meanwhile, people in the occupied valley continued to face miseries on the 161st day of military siege and lockdown on Sunday. Amid shivering cold, the residents complained of acute shortage of daily commodities particularly in the Kashmir Valley and Muslim majority areas of Jammu region.

In an attempt to sideline the officers in Indian forces belonging to minority communities, the Modi-led BJP government has arrested a Sikh Deputy Superintendent of Police, Devinder Singh, at Mir Bazaar in South Kahsmir’s Kulgam district. He was arrested on fake charges of supporting the freedom fighters.

DSP Devinder Singh was detained along with two local youth, Naveed Ahmad Shah and Rafi Ahmed, by a police team headed by DIG South Kashmir Atul Goyal. The police team intercepted DSP’s vehicle and arrested him along with Naveed and Rafi without any reason. Later, police claimed that the detained Sikh police officer was allegedly supporting the freedom fighters in the Kashmir valley.

However, observers, who have a close watch on the Kashmir’s freedom struggle and the tactics used by Modi-led Indian government to suppress the movement, believe that the detention of the police officer was made because of his religious background. The communal Hindu government, the observers added, is not ready to trust Muslim and Sikh community members in forces and is getting rid of them on one pretext or the other.

In a series of one after another incident indicating that the freedom struggle in the occupied valley has become an icon for the Indian masses, especially minorities, living under Modi-led fascist government, posters reading ‘Free Kashmir’ are now being frequently spotted during protest demonstrations in length and breadth of India.

Despite registration of treason cases against the people displaying such posters in the recent past, the newest poster reading ‘Free Kashmir’ was spotted at a protest demonstration against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Law in Chennai.

Earlier, such placards were also seen during protests in New Delhi and Mumbai. A poster was raised by a woman protesting violence against the students and faculty members of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

After Delhi, something similar also took place during a Mumbai protest on January 6 when a girl was seen holding a ‘Free Kashmir’ poster. Other demonstrators were also seen holding placards that said various things they were protesting against.

Violence was unleashed on the JNU campus on the evening of January 5 when a mob of masked men and women entered the campus holding rods and hammers and damaged the property inside the university. Teachers and students were also badly injured during the incident. More than 30 students were taken to the AIIMS Trauma Centre after the incident.