Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday (March 28) booked unknown protesters under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) after anti-Israel and pro-Palestine protests broke out in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district on the eve of Quds Day.
A separate case was filed by Budgam district police under sections 126(2) (wrongful restraint) and 189(6) (unlawful assembly) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) in connection with a similar protest that was held in Beerwah.
Quds Day, which is commemorated on the last Friday of the ongoing Islamic month of Ramadan, was marked by pro-Palestine, anti-Israel and anti-America protests in different parts of Kashmir and Ladakh, which were attended by thousands of people, including women and children.
The day is both religiously and politically significant for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, many of whom link the ongoing dispossession of the people of Palestine with their own struggles following the eruption of armed insurgency in the early 1990s.
During one such protest in Chainabal in the Pattan area of Baramulla district, some demonstrators were seen waving Hezbollah flags, while others carried placards and banners that featured the photos of Lebanese cleric and Hezbollah commander Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated last year.
Other protesters held placards featuring Yahya Sinwar, the Palestinian politician and former chairman of Hamas who was killed in a clash with Israeli forces in October last year.
The protesters shouted slogans such as “murdabad, murdabad, Israel murdabad” (Down with Israel), “murdabad murdabad, Amrika Murdabad” (Down with America) and “Ae zalimo, ae qafiro, bait-ul-muqadas chood do” (Oh tyrants, oh infidels, leave Jerusalem).
According to a police official, some protesters allegedly resorted to slogans in favour of the slain Hezbollah commander that were “aimed at inciting the public and encouraging elements associated with terrorism to engage in subversive activities and to revive terrorist activities within the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir”.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
