Rehan Qayoom Mir
Srinagar, Jul 1: Police on Tuesday foiled a protest march by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Srinagar city and detained several senior leaders and scores of party workers.
The protest was held outside the PDP headquarters near GPO, Lal Chowk Srinagar and was organized to highlight public grievances including the hike in electricity bills, acute shortage of drinking and irrigation water and to demand the return of Kashmiri detainees lodged in jails outside the Union Territory.
Eyewitnesses said that a heavy deployment of police personnel stopped the march shortly after it began, detaining many leaders on the spot and dispersing the protesting workers.
They said the protesters including both female and male leaders raised slogans against the incumbent National Conference (NC) government in Jammu and Kashmir.
Additionally, a statement issued by the party and accessed by KNO said, PDP protest was foiled by a heavy contingent of police personnel outside party headquarters Srinagar; several leaders and workers were arrested.
The detained leaders include General Secretaries Adv Abdul Haq Khan and Mohammad Khurshid Alam, senior leaders and former ministers Gh Nabi Lone Hanjura, Syed Basharat Bukhari, and Zahoor Ahmad Mir.
“Spokesperson M Iqbal Tramboo, Additional Spokesperson Shokia Qurashi, ex-MLAs Adv Mohammad Yousuf Bhat, Sheikh Noor Mohammad, and Gulzar Ahmad Wani were also among those detained,” reads the statement, adding that the district presidents Abdul Qayoom Bhat (Srinagar), Mohammad Yaseen Bhat (Budgam), Syed Sajad (Bandipora), Mohammad Afzal Wani (Kupwara), Adv Khursheed Shah, Arif Laigaroo, and several others were held by police.
The statement reads, from the women’s wing, District Presidents Sara Nayeema (Srinagar) and Tabasum Khan (Budgam), along with Sheikh Saba and others, were also detained. “The protest was peaceful and meant to raise genuine public concerns faced by the people across Jammu and Kashmir,” it reads. (KNO)
