By TCN News
New Delhi: Students from central universities in the capital city – JNU, DU and Jamia Millia Islamia – as well as workers, teachers and intelligentsia participated in a protest called by the CPI(ML) at Parliament Street today against the ongoing bloodshed of civilian protestors and the suppression of civil liberties in Kashmir.
CPI(ML) protesting in New Delhi on Friday.
Protestors displayed banners with the words: “Stop Killing And Insulting The Protesting People Of Kashmir!”, “Shame On UPA’s Hollow ‘Promises’ Of Human Rights!”, “Withdraw Armed Forces, Scrap AFSPA, Prosecute All Military And Security Personnel Guilty Of Extra-Judicial Killings!”, “Resist Ban On Mobile Services And Gag On Media, End The Rule Of Curfew, Bans, Batons And Bullets In Kashmir!”. They burnt an effigy symbolising the UPA Government and held a protest meeting.
Addressing the protest meeting, Kavita Krishnan, Central Committee member of the Party and National Secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA), said, “In the past month, at least 16 civilians, including small children, young men and women, have been killed in firing by CRPF on the streets of Kashmir. Their only crime has been that they protested against the killing of their children in fake encounters and in firing. The killing of a child in police firing would evoke angry mass protests anywhere in India. Why then are the Kashmiri people denied even the dignity of
anger and protest at the repeated killings of their children in police firing or in fake encounters by the armed forces?”
Sanjay Sharma, Delhi State Secretary of the CPI(ML), said, “ The UPA Government at the Centre and the Kashmir Government headed by Omar Abdullah are trying to brand the protestors as ‘sponsored by separatists and anti-nationals.’ By blaming the mass protests in Kashmir on Pakistan, the Indian ruling elite is only mocking at its own claim of Kashmir being an integral part of India. If Kashmir is an integral part of India, then the protests in Kashmir must be seen as protests by a section of the Indian people, and the Union Home Secretary who dismisses the protests as “a separatist nonsense” must first be dismissed.”
Santosh Rai, Delhi President of the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), said that most of those protesting on the streets and being killed in firing were children, students and youth. He said, “All avenues for democratic protest are being suppressed – the Kashmir University Students’ Union has been banned, media has been banned, sms services too are banned, and mass protests are being met with bullets.
Demanding the lifting of the bans on media and sms services, Sucheta De, Secretary of the JNU Unit of AISA said, “The people of Kashmir do not need the newspapers or TV to know how many of their kids are killed. The muzzling of media and sms is just a desperate attempt to prevent the rest of the world from getting to know of what is happening in Kashmir.”
Ravi Rai, General Secretary of All India Students’ Association (AISA) said that the Government must stop branding the protestors as ‘terrorists’ and must recognise instead that the alienation of Kashmiri youth cannot end till the security forces responsible for raping young women, for murdering youth in staged encounters and branding them as ‘terrorists’ in all the decades past are not brought to book; until the Kashmiri people truly enjoy the inalienable right to voice their political demands and shape their political future without fear; until the Army is withdrawn from the Valley and the AFSPA scrapped.”