APHC leaders and activists arrested

Dozens of APHC leaders including APHC Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, were arrested in Indian Kashmir on Thursday.

ISLAMABAD/SRINAGAR: Dozens of All Parties Hurriyet Conference leaders including APHC Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, were arrested while leading a protest march in Indian Kashmir on Thursday.

The leaders were arrested while they were marching towards the head quarters of the UN Military Observer Group to denounce continued human rights violations by Indian troops in the territory.

Meanwhile APHC leader and Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Movement, Ghulam Ahmed Mir urged India to repeal its black laws and withdraw its armed forces from the territory.

Mir, while addressing party workers at Thanamandiin Rajouri in Indian Kashmir, said that India should create a conducive atmosphere for peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the wishes of Kashmiri people.

Mir said Kashmir is the most militarized region in the world and heavy presence of Indian forces bestowed with draconian laws is prompting human rights violations in the territory, reported KMS Thursday.

Veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader Syed Ali Gilani also said that Indian troops are killing the innocent

Kashmiris with impunity, due to the invocation of black laws in the territory.

According to Kashmir Media Service, Syed Ali Gilani, expressing his condolences to the family of Tufail Ahmad, a student of Saidakadal killed by Indian troops, said that it was not the first incident of its kind but such acts of Indian state terrorism had been happening in the past as well.

He said, unless black laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) are revoked, the human rights violations will not end.

He said that India had adopted Hitler's policy and Kashmiris were the victims of worst kind of dictatorship.

Gilani said that, on one hand, India was talking about dialogue and, on the other, its army general called draconian laws like AFSPA as a holy book. He demanded complete withdrawal of the troopers from the territory.