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Activists detained, mosque shut in bid to thwart pro-Palestine protests in J&K

KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 10/23/2023 8:38:51 AM

*Mehbooba’s rally stopped

Cops sealing Maharaja Hari Singh Park in Jammu to stall the protest after detaining leaders on October 21, 2023. Photo: Aman Zutshi

SRINAGAR/JAMMU, Oct 22: The Jamia Masjid in Srinagar was forcibly closed for the second consecutive week and several activists in Jammu were detained by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in an attempt to thwart protests against the Israeli aggression on Palestinian people in Gaza and West Bank.
Mehbooba Mufti, president of the Peoples Democratic Party lead a protest against the civilian casualties in Palestine but the demonstrators were disallowed from proceeding towards City Centre in Srinagar.
JAMMU: Police swooped in on the homes of civil society activists late Friday night to thwart a pro-Palestine protest they were organizing in Jammu on Saturday under the banner of United Peace Alliance.
The organizing committee members of the alliance including Sheikh Abdul Rehman, former MP and MLA, civil society activist I.D. Khajuria, Mir Shahid Saleem, Narendra Singh Khalsa, Subash Mehta and Sukhdev Singh were picked up from their homes, detained in different police stations in Jammu, Samba and Kathua. They were later released Saturday evening after registering cases against them, they said.
The organization had asked people to gather at Maharaja Hari Singh Park near Dogra Chowk in Jammu for the demonstrations. Posters were also put up in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts regarding the demonstrations.
However, the leaders of the protest were detained ahead of the scheduled protest.

Several J&K police personnel along with security forces were deployed at the Maharaja Hari Singh Park on Saturday morning to repel protesters from staging any demonstration in favour of Palestine. No protestors reached the protest site as they had been picked up the night before.
A family member of I.D Khajuria said that the latter was picked by Kathua police from his residence in Kathua late night at 12pm and detained there.

The detained leaders, after their release, have reiterated their commitment to the cause for peace and called for an end to the Gaza War
Several political leaders including Mehbooba Mufti and Muzaffar Shah of Awami National Conference condemned their detention. The J&K State Council of CPI-ML Liberation also condemned the arrests and described it as trampling of civil liberties. Pakistan India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy condemned the arrests and said that this was an attempt to intimidate and silence the voices of courage that speak truth to power.
SRINAGAR: The PDP activists, led by Mehbooba Mufti, took out a protest rally outside the party headquarters in Srinagar on Saturday. However, police stopped Mehbooba and her supporters from proceeding towards the city centre of Lal Chowk.
Reminding the world leaders about their shifting moral compass and hypocrisy, Mehbooba pointed out that the egregious scale of violence in Palestine with over 1500 has not sparked the outrage it deserved. “When 500 children were killed in two years in Ukraine, the whole world cried, but today no one is speaking up,” she said.
Mufti warned that the situation in Palestine could escalate global terrorism, as the oppressive conditions, including the denial of food, water, and medicine, may lead more people to take up arms.
She drew parallels between the current events and the historical holocaust, stressing the potentially grave consequences for the world.
Earlier this Friday, the Jammu and Kashmir Police forced the closure of the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar ahead of the weekly congregational prayers to prevent any pro-Palestinian rallies.
A spokesman of Anjuman-i-Auqaf Jamia Masjid said that the police officials once again closed the gates of the historic Grand Mosque and asked the management not to open these for Friday congregational prayers. The spokesman added that the Anjuman chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq too was stopped from reaching the mosque.
A statement of the Anjuman said, "It is unfortunate that after being allowed to offer Friday prayers and deliver sermons at the Jama Masjid finally after four years of house detention, the authorities once again stopped him for the second consecutive Friday from going there. It added, "Since the 15th of October, he continues to be under house detention and is not allowed to move out."
A report said that another prominent Shia cleric Agha Syed Mohammed Hadi Kashmiri was also placed under house arrest to prevent him from leading a pro-Palestinian rally in Srinagar’s Bemina area.
(With inputs from Aman Zutshi)