Eight more Kashmiris detained in ‘arresting spree’

By News Desk

ISLAMABAD: Indian police arrested eight more Kashmiri youths in occupied Kashmir’s Baramulla and Pulwama districts on Saturday amid an intensifying crackdown that has been characterised by the All Parties Hurriyat Conference as an “arresting spree”.

According to the Kashmir Media Service, three youths arrested from the Dangerpora locality of Baramullah’s Sopore area were identified by police as Ishfaq Pandit, Abdul Majeed Dar and Mubashir Dar.

Two other youths, Yasin Bhat and Wasid Sofi, were arrested from a checkpoint at Najibhat Crossing in Kareeri area of the district. The police labelled Pandit as a “militant” and all other youth as “over-ground workers” working with fighters.

Three youths, who police named as Nadeem Dar, Ahmed Sofi and Shakir Darm, were arrested from the Pampore town of Pulwama district on the charges pasting posters and displaying banners of fighters in the town.

The All Parties Hurriyat Conference expressed serious concern over the “arrest spree” unleashed by Indian troops and police personnel across the disputed territory.

The APHC spokesman in a statement strongly condemned the arrest of youths during massive cordon and search operations in Pulwama, Awantipora, Sopore, Baramulla, Bandipora, Kupwara and other areas. Indian police and troops have arrested dozens of youths during house raids and search operations in Srinagar, Pulwama, Kulgam, Bandipora, Kupwara, Ramban and other areas in the last few days. He said the Indian army was arresting the youths and “killing them in fake encounters”. The spokesman said the Narendra Modi-led government was “hell bent upon converting the Muslim majority in the territory into a minority”. He urged the international community to put pressure on New Delhi to stop human rights abuses in the occupied territory.