Akhtar said Kashmir’s angry youth “get surcharged due to certain projections in the media”, causing more street protests and use of force by security forces – resulting in a vicious cycle of violence that has left over 40 people dead and almost 2,000 injured, including over 100 who have been hit by pellets in their eyes and may be partially or fully be blinded for the rest of their lives.
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Even as the state government in Jammu and Kashmir denied having imposed any sort of ban on publication of newspapers in the Valley, the editors and owners of publications today said that it may not be possible for them to resume publication of newspapers in wake of latest developments.
Wani was part of a new generation of young, educated Kashmiris freedom fighters using social media to spread their demands for independence from Indian rule, turning growing Internet use in the restive region into a powerful recruiting tool.
More than 40 people have been killed and almost 2,000 people and 1,600 security forces have been injured in clashes since 9 July.
Newspaper editors denounced the government action and termed it “gagging and enforcing emergency on media”.
The government made a verbal apology and called the ban a “mistake”, but then authorities “resorted to a propaganda blitzkrieg insisting that there was no ban”, said Masood Hussain, a senior journalist and editor of the English weekly Kashmir Life, after the meeting with others in the local media industry.
“Sometimes decisions taken at a local level is not something the highest authority approves of”.
In a bid to lodge its protest against Indian atrocities in the occupied Kashmir, raising the burning issue on the worldwide level, Pakistan is observing “Black Day” today. “There was some miscommunication”, he said. He said the decision to continue the curfew was taken to maintain law and order as one person was killed in fresh violence in Kupwara district on Saturday.
The protests, marked by clashes between rock-throwing Kashmiris and troops firing live ammunition, pellet guns and tear gas, persisted despite a strict curfew in place for the eleventh straight day Tuesday.
The latest spate of unrest in the Indian-held Kashmir killing almost 50 unarmed Kashmiris while wounding many others have jolted the world.
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Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since 1947, but both claim the territory in its entirety. AP material published by LongIsland.com, is done so with explicit permission. Doing so may result in civil and/or criminal penalties.
