Hurriyat calls for shutdown in Kashmir on November 19

Hurriyat leader has called for the shutdown over recent civilian killings

A jawan stands guard during a protest attended by former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in Srinagar on November 18, 2021.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday claimed that she was not allowed to leave her residence in Srinagar to join a sit-in demanding the return of bodies of alleged civilians killed in the Hyderpora encounter in Jammu and Kashmir.

“Their narrative right from the start was based on lies to escape accountability. They don’t want to be held accountable for their actions and that’s why they are muzzling voices that speak up against such injustice and atrocities,” she said in a tweet.

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“The pattern of using innocent civilians as human shields and then denying their families the right to a decent burial shows that the Government of India has plumbed new depths of inhumanity,” she said.

Sharing a video of the police action at night, in which family members of those killed in the encounter were removed from the protest site, National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah said, “This is the ‘Naya Kashmir’ of 2021. This is how the J&K police fulfils the Prime Minister’s promise to remove ‘ dil ki doori and Dilli se doori ’.”

The Hurriyat, headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, has called for a shutdown on Friday over the killings.

“Infant daughter, distraught mother protesting in freezing weather not for punishment to the killers but begging for the bodies for a decent burial is agonising,” the Mirwaiz said in a statement.

To protest such inhumanity and in solidarity with the devastated families, people should observe a shutdown on Friday, he said.