Forces punishing Kashmiris for poll boycott: Geelani

‘Shutdown only option as peaceful protests responded with bullets, pellets’

Chairman of Hurriyat Conference (G) Syed Ali Geelani Wednesday accused the police and other security agencies of “punishing” people of Kashmir for boycotting the recently-held LokSabha elections. 
“At the behest of so-called government, police and forces have been acting more loyal than the king by punishing Kashmiris for boycotting the drama of Parliamentary elections in Kashmir,” said Geelani.  
Defending his decision of Thursday’s shutdown against the ‘arrest spree’ in Kashmir, Geelani said, “Shutdown is the only option with us to express our resentment against the arrest-spree.” 
“People are not even allowed to stage peaceful protests against arrest of their relatives. Police and armed forces use pellets, pepper gas and bullets to quell even peaceful protests. In such a situation, shutdown is the only viable option to raise our voice against the arrest-spree,” he said.
Geelani made a passionate appeal to people to observe complete shutdown on Thursday.  
The Hurriyat (G) Chairman maintained that if the detained people including separatists and youth are not released immediately, the Conglomerate will be forced to give protest programme against it. 
‘We won’t sit silently on the atrocities on Kashmiris by police and forces. The boycott of elections by Kashmiris has frustrated New Delhi and its puppet regime in the state. The arrest of separatists and youth is an act of sheer political vengeance,” he said.
Geelani alleged that Army raided several houses at HardshivaSopore and detained those who boycotted the elections. “They detained many youth and one of them Mudasir Ahmad Reshi was brutally tortured and is undergoing treatment in Sopore hospital,” he said. 

Geelani justifies poll boycott call Previous post Geelani calls for protest shutdown tomorrow
Next post ‘Rage Boy’ Bhat completes 5 yrs in jail