- Kashmiris said they would continue their fight for independence till their last breath
SRINAGAR, August 23: Despite the worst curfew in occupied Kashmir, thousands of Kashmiris took to the streets to protest against India on Friday (August 23) over New Delhi’s unconstitutional move to withdraw the special status despite of the valley amid heavy paramilitary presence.
Posters appeared overnight this week in Srinagar, the Muslim-majority region’s main city, calling for a march to the office of the U.N. Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), to protest against India’s revocation of Jammu and Kashmir state’s special autonomy.
Hurriyat leaders have called for all Kashmiris to leave their homes after Friday prayers, calling for a strong protest against India’s unconstitutional move, in which thousands of Kashmiri men, women, elders and children took to the streets raising flags of Pakistan
and chanting Shahada “Allah is one”.
On Friday, protesters came out in the lanes of Soura, a densely populated enclave in Srinagar, and said they would continue their fight for independence till their last breath.
According to the British Broadcasting Agency, peaceful protests of Kashmiris were underway, but the occupying Indian army, not even considering children and women, suddenly attacked the demonstrators with pellet guns and teargas shells.
Kashmiris also became enraged and started responding to Indian troops with stones. Thereafter violent clash between the protestors and security forces took place in which several Kashmiris were injured. The clash continued for two hours in which the Kashmiris bravely fought the Indian Army armed with weapons.
Meanwhile, India has locked mosques, imposing a religious ban on Kashmiris. Kashmiri Hurriyat leaders had announced that all Kashmiris would break the curfew and hold rallies, but after a call for protests, the Modi government tightened securities in the occupied valley.
Terrified of Kashmiris, the Modi government has shut down all the big and small mosques in Srinagar, Shopian, Anantnag, Pulwama, Kupwara and Hazratbal Shrine in all the districts of Kashmir.-Agencies
