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| December 10, 2005 | Saturday | Ziqa’ad 7, 1426 |
Protests in Muzaffarabad over alleged rape
MUZAFFARABAD, Dec 9: A procession taken out in protest against reported rape of a Kashmiri earthquake survivor in Lahore was stopped by police from entering the main road here on Friday. The 20-year-old girl from Muzaffarabad was allegedly raped by a doctor in his hospital room on the night of December 4.
The protesters raised slogans against the accused and demanded that earthquake survivors should be shifted from Pakistani cities to the territory of Kashmir.
“We are people of integrity. The quake has deprived us of our worldly belongings, but not of our sense of honour,” said Khawaja Saifuddin, a leader of the pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) which had organised the demonstration.
“Nobody should underestimate us. Inaction by the authorities will leave us with no option but to launch an agitation from one end of Kashmir to the other,” he declared. Another JKLF leader, Sajid Siddiqui, urged the earthquake survivors not to compromise their national integrity. “Live without food if you don’t find any. Eat grass, but protect your honour.” Mr Siddiqui alleged that four Kashmiri girls had been abducted from the old campus camp in Muzaffarabad within a week after the quake and called upon President Pervez Musharraf to ensure their immediate recovery.
JKLF leader Bashir Ahmed Lone strongly criticised some federal ministers for “patronising elements involved in criminal activities” in the AJK.
As the leaders finished their speeches, emotionally charged demonstrators started marching on the busy road, only to be stopped by a sizeable contingent of police. The police said they could not allow the march as the government had banned rallies and processions following last month’s clashes between Jamaat-i-Islami and the MQM.
“No to India, no to Pakistan, we want free Kashmir,” the angry demonstrators chanted, changing the nature of the demonstration. “We want UN (United Nations) forces,” was another slogan raised by the demonstrators.
Some participants, belonging to the hardline National Students Federation, shouted slogans against Pakistan which, however, were immediately renounced by the JKLF leaders who said they were grateful to the people and the state of Pakistan for their support to quake victims.
“We are well-wishers of Pakistan. But we earnestly call upon the Pakistani rulers not to protect people who tarnish the image of their country,” JKLF leader Zahid Habib Sheikh said.
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