Daily Times

In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, India has snatched every right including religious freedom of Kashmiri Muslims.

A report released by Kashmir Media Service maintained that Narendra Modi-led fascist Indian government after usurping all basic human rights of the people of the territory is not even allowing the Kashmiri Muslims to perform their religious obligations like sacrifice of bovines under the garb of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

The report said the ban on sacrifice of bovines in the occupied territory is direct infringement upon the Kashmiris’ religious freedom and an attempt to prevent the Kashmiris from discharging their religious duties. The move is a message to Kashmiris that neither their sentiments nor their religious freedoms matter to India, it said.

The report said the Kashmiris strongly resented the Indian authorities’ order of banning the sacrifice of bovine animals on Eid-ul-Azha in IIOJK. The All Parties Hurriyat Conference in a statement in Srinagar said the move exposed the hidden agenda of extremist Hindu organizations like Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Shiv Sena to thrust Hindu fascism on the Muslim majority Kashmir which shall be resisted at all costs. The Muttahida Majlis-e-Ulema Jammu and Kashmir, headed by incarcerated Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, in a statement in Srinagar asked the authorities to desist from issuing such arbitrary orders that are unacceptable to the Muslims of the territory as they directly infringe upon their religious freedom and their personal law, causing great anguish among them. The Grand Mufti of IIOJK, Mufti Nasir-ul-Islam, termed the ban on the sacrificing of the bovine on the auspicious occasion of Eid-ul-Azha as direct interference in the religious matters of the Muslims of the occupied territory.

The report pointed out that Modi is shaping India’s policy according to Hindutva dictates and the ban on sacrifice of bovines in IIOJK has exposed hidden agenda of Hindutva forces against the Kashmiri Muslims. It added that the world must come forward to save Kashmiri Muslims from Hindu fascism.

Meanwhile, in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has said that the BJP government should answer as to who authorized the “illegal surveillance” of Indians through Pegasus spyware.

The CPI-M in a statement said reports say that in India, the numbers of phones belonging to hundreds of journalists, activists, opposition politicians, government officials and business executives were on the snooping list.

Reports in Indian media have named at least 40 journalists who are under surveillance of Israeli company NSO’s Pegasus spyware.

The statement reads that two years ago, the CPI-M had raised in Parliament that this dangerous spyware was being used in India as revealed by WhatsApp. “The Modi government’s response had not categorically denied that it engaged the services of NSO but claimed that there is no unauthorised surveillance. With these revelations, it is clear that this government has engaged NSO for such surveillance against its own citizens. The Central government must come clean on what is its engagement with NSO, what are the terms and how much our public funds have been paid for this,” it says.

The statement reads that the use of a cyber spy software to hack smart phones even by the government is prohibited under Indian laws. “Under what law has the government undertaken such surveillance activities over citizens? The right to privacy is a fundamental right as laid down by the Supreme Court, but this BJP government is prevaricating on legislating the privacy law,” it says.

The CPI-M statement reads that earlier instances of hacking smart phones and computers of human rights activists have been exposed. “This is unacceptable levels of authoritarianism employing fascistic methods. The ‘snoop, plant, arrest’ formula employed by this BJP government is a violation of the fundamental rights of Indian citizens,” it adds.

The CPI-M said that the BJP government must answer and come clean on using the Pegasus cyber software for surveillance of Indian citizens in an illegal and unauthorized manner.