Bathinda bodies rally behind Kashmiris' rights

Bathinda: Acting on the call given by ‘Kashmiri Support and Struggle Committee, Punjab’, comprising several left-leaning organizations, hundreds of activists, including women, held a protest at Bathinda on Tuesday.

The committee has announced to hold a massive rally at Chandigarh on September 15.

The protesters criticized the Union government’s move to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370. They said with the move, the Union government had curtailed several rights of Kashmiri people who were forced to live under constant fear. They said the decision should be revoked immediately and rights of the people of Kashmir be restored.

The committee had given a call for protests at various districts in Punjab from September 3 to 10.

Farmer organization BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) vice-president Jhanda Singh Jethuke, committee members Harinder Kaur and Shingara Singh Mann said the fundamental rights of the people of Kashmir have been snatched as they are made to live under a lot of restrictions. The Union government was treating them with suspicion which was not right in a civil society and democratic set-up, they said.

“We are with the people of Kashmir and strongly condemn the act. With this act of the Union government, the people of Kashmir are feeling repressed for over a month. Social and political representatives should be allowed to visit Kashmir to inquire the well-being of the natives,” Jethuke said.