Asif condemns Indian efforts to suppress Kashmiri struggle

Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday strongly condemned "continuing efforts of the Indian occupation forces to suppress the legitimate Kashmiri struggle for the right to self-determination by inhuman tactics including torture, arbitrary arrests, and extra-judicial killings." In a statement, the foreign minister stated that India again violated rights of Kashmiris to assemble and protest by arresting leaders and workers to prevent them from joining the 'Anantnag Chalo' rally on December 15, 2017.
However, raids on residences of Kashmiri leaders, coercive measures and repression by Indian authorities could not break the resolve of brave people for expressing solidarity with South Kashmir, he added.
He stated that another abhorrent element of Indian strategy had been to implicate Kashmiri leaders in false cases and harass them by their arrests, incarceration and summoning them to courts time and again. The latest example was the issuance of notice to senior Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani for appearing before a local court in a 15 years old case that speaks volumes about this highhandedness, he added.
"Indian authorities continue to detain Kashmiri leaders without framing charges against them, harass them by making false charges and substitute investigation with torture," he said, adding the international community must not remain silent over the outrageous violations of due process of law by Indian government in cases of Kashmiri leaders who are resisting illegal occupation.