A large number of protestors carrying banners and placards inscribed with anti-India slogans stood outside Indian High Commission in Islamabad on Thursday to protest against the martyrdom of Tehreek-i-Hurriyat Chairman Ashraf Sehrai in Indian police’s custody. The protest was led by multiple Kashmiri leaders, who regarded the martyrdom of Ashraf Sehrai as an ‘extra-judicial killing’ and called for its investigation at international level. Addressing the participants, the leaders said Ashraf Sehrai and his family had rendered great sacrifices for the freedom movement, adding “The Kashmiri nation is proud of a great leader like Ashraf Sehrai.” Hurriyat Conference Information Secretary Abdul Matin Sheikh demanded an investigation from international organizations while terming Sehrai’s martyrdom an extrajudicial killing in Indian custody. Jammu and Kashmir People’s Freedom League Chairman Muhammad Farooq Rehmani paid rich tribute to the martyr Sehrai during the rally. He said that the icon of freedom struggle achieved martyrdom in an Indian prison. No proper medical facilities were given to him during his illegal confinement, he added. “His custodial death supplements the popular observations that Modi cult of tyranny is on rise in Kashmir and other Kashmiri leaders aren’t safe and secure in prisons,” he noted while urging Pakistan to raise the question of Sehrai’s custodial death on the international level. He urged the United Nations to send an investigation team to the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir to unravel the truth behind his death which threatened the life of other leaders in Indian Jails. Acting chairman DFPM Saghar while eulogizing the supreme sacrifices of Ashraf Sehrai and his family for the Kashmir cause, said his contribution to the cause would be written in golden words and remembered for a long time in the annals of Kashmir history. Terming him as a man of principle, Saghar said Sehrai had never compromised on his ideals. Extending his condolences to the bereaved family, he prayed for the departed soul. In the meanwhile, Sehrai was laid to rest amidst exceptionally tight Indian occupational military siege in his ancestral village Tekipora in Lolab area of Kupwara district in Indian Illegally occupied Jammu Kashmir, said a report. The Indian occupational forces had put strict restrictions on the movement of the people and the whole area was cordoned off. A small number of people including few of close relatives were allowed to participate in the funeral prayers and to have a last glimpse of the martyred leader, allegedly became the victim of the custodial murder behind the bars by the Indian occupational forces. Indian occupational forces had placed restrictions all across the occupied valley to prevent mammoth gathering of the funeral prayer of Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai. In the wake of continual mean tactics, the occupational forces totally disconnected the power supply electricity in the native village of the departed leader, plunging the area in total darkness at the time of the arrival of the dead body for burial Sehrai had been shifted from Udhampur jail to Govt. Medical College hospital Jammu on Tuesday after his health condition was suddenly worsened to an alarming stage. Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai was deprived of all medical facilities and even basic human facilities in Udhampur jail which primarily caused his crucial health condition. His dead body was brought in the Indian occupying forces custody from Jammu to his native village. Meanwhile All Parties Hurriyat Conference has appealed to the people of Kashmir to come out of their homes and hold large protests against the cruelty of the Modi regime. The APHC has asked people to manage Gaibana Namaz-e-Janza (funerals in absentia) across the IIOJK State. the occupied territory. The APHC also appealed to the Kashmiri and Pakistani diaspora and peace loving people the world over to hold protests and the funeral prayer in absentia all across the globe.