- Kashmiris take out protest demo in Muzaffarabad
ISLAMABAD: The arrest of Chairman of International Forum for Justice and Human Rights JK (IFJHRJK), Muhammad Ahsan Untoo has sparked outrage and anger among Kashmiris triggering demonstrations and condemnations from rights activists.
A protest demonstration was held in Muzaffarabad on Saturday against the arrest of noted human rights activist and Chairman of International Forum for Justice and Human Rights JK (IFJHRJK), Muhammad Ahsan Untoo, and other citizens by the Indian authorities in IIOJK.
The protest demonstration was organized by IFJHRJK at Burhan Wani Chowk in Muzaffarabad. The demonstrators, holding banners in their hands marched to the Aiwan-e-Adl on the main highway and prayed for the martyrs of Kashmir.
IFJHRJK Vice Chairman, Mushtaq-ul-Islam, Chairman of Pasban-e-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir, Uzair Ahmad Ghazali, Shamshir Khan Advocate, Mehtab Mir Advocate, Usman Ali Hashim, Irshad Ahmed Khan, Mubashir Wani, Ajmal Mughal, Mumtaz Mughal and others participated and addressed the
demonstration.
Addressing the protest demonstration, Mushtaq-ul-Islam, Uzair Ghazali, Shamshir Khan, Usman Ali Hashim and Irshad Ahmad Khan said Muhammad Ahsan Untoo is a great leader, who has strongly opposed human rights violations by Indian troops in IIOJK.
The international human rights organizations must take notice of his illegal arrest, they added.
They said that even before his arrest, Muhammad Ahsan Untoo had been lodged in different jails of India, but he was released when no crime was proved against him. They said India wants to cover up its war crimes in IIOJK by arresting human rights activists, Khurram Parvez, Muhammad Ahsan Untoo and journalist Sajjad Gul.
The Indian government is suppressing every voice for
freedom, right to self-determination, justice and human rights, they deplored.
Chairman of Kashmir Institute of International Relations (KIIR), Altaf Hussain Wani, has condemned in strong terms, the arrest of noted human rights activist and Chairman of International Forum for Justice and Human Rights JK, Muhammad Ahasan Untoo, by the Indian authorities in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
The KIIR chief in a statement issued in Islamabad, today, said that Ahsan Untoo’s detention was part of Modi-led apartheid regime’s policy aimed at silencing rights defenders who have time and again played vital role in
raising alarm over the rights situation in IIOJK and criticized the fascist regime’s brutal policies towards Kashmir.
Altaf Wani said Ahsan Untoo is one of the bold and brave voices of IIOJK who was being victimized just for standing up for the rights of common Kashmiris. Referring to India’s brutal policies, he said, the BJP government was hell bent on choking every dissenting voice in Kashmir.
“Untoo has since long been on the hit list of Indian secret agencies. Earlier, he received death threats from unknown and unidentified numbers, especially after attending an online webinar organized as a sideline event of 48th Session of UN Human Rights Council”.
“He was ruthlessly thrashed and beaten to pulp by the CRPF and police personnel on 19 October 2021 while he was on a private visit to Watergam village of Rafiabad area of Baramulla district,” he said.
Terming Ahsan Untoo’s arrest as a flagrant violation of the basic human rights, Altaf Wani urged the world human rights organization to take effective notice of the matter and play their due role in release of all human rights activists who have been arrested in fake and fabricated cases
in IIOJK.
