India wants to eliminate Kashmiri leadership: APHC

ISLAMABAD: In occupied Kashmir, the Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, senior Kashmiri Hurriyat leader, Syed Ali Geelani and the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Muhammad Yasin Malik have emphasized that India wants to eliminate the Kashmiri leadership to suppress the ongoing freedom movement. The leaders said this while addressing hundreds of thousands of mourners at Mazar-e-Shuhada in Srinagar on the occasion of final funeral rituals of the senior APHC leader, Shaikh Abdul Aziz, who was martyred by Indian troops on Monday, while leading a march towards the Line of Control, holding in his hands a big portrait of Quaid-e-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Shaikh Aziz was laid to rest at the `Martyrs' Graveyard' in Eidgah on Tuesday amid sobs and tears, a local daily reported. Earlier, defying curfew orders large crowds of people assembled outside the residences of the Mirwaiz and Syed Ali Gilani who took them along to Mazar-e-Shuhada breaking the three-tier security cordon, which was in place to keep them under house arrest.Mirwaiz described the murder of the APHC leader as targeted killing. He said that the naked aggression of the occupation authorities would not be tolerated and that voices would continue to be raised against it. Calling for observing August 15 as a Black Day, the APHC Chairman advised parents not to send their children to participate in functions on the day. He said that there was no information about the whereabouts of senior APHC leader, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, and that the authorities should disclose the fate of thousands of people including Shah. In his speech, Syed Ali Gilani, deferred the Muzaffarabad march and said that peaceful protests would be held for the next four days. He said that sacrifice of Shaikh Aziz would not go in vain, nor would the sacrifices offered so far be allowed to go waste. "Sacrifices are a part of our struggle, and there is no deviation from this path,' he added. Muhammad Yasin Malik, who had left hospital against the advice of his doctors, addressing the gathering termed Shaikh Aziz's murder as a irreparable loss for the people of Kashmir and asked the people to remain united and calm in this hour of trial. Meanwhile, lacs of people who could not reach Srinagar due to curfew, offered funeral prayers in absentia for Sheikh Abdul Aziz across the Valley.