By KMS

SRINAGAR – Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir Chairman and senior leader of APHC Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai has died in Indian custody in occupied Kashmir, it emerged on Wednesday.

Booked under draconian Public Safety Act, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai was on July 12, 2020 shifted to Udhampur Jail in Jammu. His condition deteriorated in jail, but was not given timely access to doctor and was only shifted, yesterday, to a hospital in Jammu where he died, KMS news reported.

The deceased leader, 77, was suffering from various diseases but he was denied treatment by Indian forces during the incarceration. Furthermore, his family was not even informed about his deteriorated health condition.

He all along his life worked as a lieutenant of Syed Ali Gilani, and was a member of Jamaat-e-Islami.

Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai was a key freedom fighter and had allowed his son Junaid Sehrai to join the ranks of armed struggle. Junaid was martyred by Indian occupant forces on May 19, 2020 in Srinagar.

This is not the first time that Kashmiri leader are meted out such cruel treatment by the forces in order to bar them from their freedom struggle.

The Indian police have started arrested leaders of Tehreek Hurriyat to avoid protests in the occupied valley.

Arrest of Sehrai’s sons, Israeli aggression denounced

In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) has condemned the arrest of the sons of martyred Kashmiri leader Muhammad Asharaf Sehrai, famous religious preacher Moulana Sarjan Barkati and others.

In a statement issued in Srinagar, the DFP spokesman termed it as a violation of basic human rights.

He said that it was unfortunate that Kashmiris were not even allowed to mourn the death of their loved ones.

Referring to the arrest of Moulana Barkati and dozens of others who were arrested for expressing solidarity with the people of Palestine, the spokesman said that arresting people merely for expressing sympathy with

the suffering humanity was nothing but a frustration on the part of Indian government.

He said that imposing restrictions on people’s thinking and coercing them to silence was an atrocious assault on people’s right to freedom of speech and expression.

Such mean tactics would not deter Kashmiris from pursuing their collective cause for which they have rendered matchless sacrifices, he added.

Expressing sympathy with the people of Palestine he said that Palestine and Kashmir were two nations and have suffered terribly at the hands of foreign occupation.

Seeking an immediate end to bloodshed in the region the spokesman urged the world to take notice of the state-terrorism unleashed upon hapless Palestinians by the Israeli government.

Jammu Kashmir National Front (JKNF) while condemning in strong terms the arrest of the sons of martyred Kashmiri leader Muhammad Asharaf Sehrai, Sarjan Barkati and other Hurriyat activists said that the occupation authorities have crossed all limits of brutalities in Kashmir JKNF spokesman Shafiq-ur-Rehman said that the Indian authorities don’t allow Kashmiris to even mourn the death of loved ones.

The spokesman expressed complete solidarity with the people of Palestine and denounced in strong terms the Israeli naked aggression on Gaza.

Jammmu and Kashmir Islami Tanzeem-e-Azadi Chairman Abdul Samad Inqilabi in a statement also denounced the arrest of Sehrai’s two sons.

APHC AJK leader Mohammad Zahid Saffi in a statement strongly condemned the arrest of two sons of Shaheed Sehrai, Sarjan Barakati and others in different parts of Kashmir for showing solidarity with the people of Palestine.

Zahid Saffi called these arrests by Indian authoritative regime as frustration as they are unable to control the spread of Covid-19 across India.—KMS