Authorities block Muzzafarabad-Srinagar highway with containers, barbed wires to stop marcher from reaching LoC
our correspondent
MUZAFFARABAD
Thousands of Kashmiris on the call of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) on Sunday marched towards the Line of Control (LoC) — the de facto border between Pakistan and India — but were stopped by the authorities by placing containers, barbed wires, electricity poles and mounds of earth on the road.
The rally billed as “Freedom March” is being held to protest New Delhi’s move to scrap the special status of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) and the imposition of curfew in the territory since Aug 5.
The march has been organised by JKLF, a group led by pro-independence leader Yasin Malik, who is currently in detention in occupied Kashmir.
The marchers who gathered in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) planned to hold a sit-in near the LoC and were on their way to Chakothi.
However, when they reached Jiskool on Sunday, the local administration blocked the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar highway to stop them from moving ahead.
Speaking on the matter, JKLF Spokesperson Muhammad Rafiq Dar said they were holding a peaceful demonstration to express solidarity with innocent Kashmiris who are suffering at the hands of barbaric Indian forces.
“We want to draw the attention of the international community towards the urgent need of an immediate and peaceful settlement to the longstanding Kashmir dispute,” he said, adding that they did not intend to have any kind of confrontation with the authorities because any violent situation would only serve India’s interests.
“We have to save our energies for confrontation with India,” he added.
He also urged the authorities to remove the blockades so that the marchers could reach their destination — Chakothi, a village 3 kilometres before LoC which is overlooked by Indian forces atop the mountains on the other side of the de-facto border.
He said that by sunset, when the crowd would be thinned out, they would stage a sit-in half a kilometre before the containers. “We will hold consultations for our future course of action,” he added.
