Delhi, March 23, KNT: Kashmiri separatist leaders were reportedly prevented from staging a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Saturday after police intervened and dispersed those who had gathered following a call by Muttahida Majlis Mushawarat (MMM).
The protest call had been issued to demand the return of the mortal remains of Afzal Guru to his family, but reports indicated that only a handful of Kashmiri leaders reached the designated protest site.
Among those present were Javid Ahmed Mir, Shabir Ahmed Dar and Zaffar Akbar Bhat, who attempted to assemble at Jantar Mantar but were later asked by police to leave the area.
Speaking over phone from New Delhi, Javid Ahmed Mir, a leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (H), alleged that the leaders were not allowed to stage the protest.
“Though we are not part of the MMM, we came to Jantar Mantar as responsible citizens of Kashmir to register our protest. However, we were harassed not only by the police but also by people present there,” Mir said.
According to reports, no significant participation was witnessed either from Kashmir or from civil society groups in India, despite the call issued by MMM.
Witnesses said police personnel asked the leaders to vacate the area shortly after they arrived at the protest site. The leaders were later escorted away from the location.
One of the separatist leaders claimed that some people present at the site objected to the proposed protest, citing that the day was associated with the remembrance of Bhagat Singh, the Indian revolutionary who was executed by the British in 1931.
“Some people told us they would not allow any anti-India protest on this day,” a separatist leader said.
Following the objections and police intervention, the leaders eventually left the area.
The call for the protest had been issued by Muttahida Majlis Mushawarat, which had appealed to civil society groups from both Kashmir and India to assemble at Jantar Mantar to demand the return of Afzal Guru’s remains to his family.
Afzal Guru, who was convicted in connection with the 2001 Indian Parliament attack, was executed in 2013 in Delhi’s Tihar Jail. [KNT]
