Date:13/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/13/stories/2006091302061400.htm

National

Hundreds join Yasin Malik in hunger strike

Shujaat Bukhari

Lawyers, intellectuals protest against rights abuses

SRINAGAR: Hundreds of people, including lawyers, intellectuals, businessmen and students, on Tuesday joined Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik in his day-long hunger strike to protest against what they alleged "rising" human rights violations in Kashmir.

Mr. Malik said the human rights situation in the Kashmir had deteriorated in spite of Prime Minister Manmohan Sigh's promise of "zero tolerance." "His assurance has not been fulfilled and this hunger strike is to remind him about that. People are being killed, tortured, harassed and oppressed," said Mr. Malik talking to reporters at the venue of the fast.Joined by intellectuals like Agha Ashraf Ali, Rehman Rahi, Zarif Ahmad Zarif, human rights activist Kumar Ji Wanchoo, former bureaucrat Abdul Ahad, a number of lawyers, students and teachers, he said that even disabled people were not spared by the CRPF. "We demand impartial probe into these incidents by international bodies," he said.

To court arrest

Mr. Malik said that from September 15, JKLF activists would start courting arrest to highlight the abuses.

On Human Rights Watch's report on militants indulging in abuses, Mr. Malik said. "We have always condemned the killing of innocents, but you need to see who these unidentified people are."

Noor Mohammad, a villager from Kupwara who had come to take part in the strike, said the security forces had made their life miserable. "That is why we are here to join the strike."

The media should visit far-flung areas and see the plight of people, he said.