KARACHI: Kashmiri students staged a big demonstration in Srinagar on Thursday [Oct 7] in favour of a plebiscite in the Indian held Jammu and Kashmir State, according to a British Broadcasting Corporation report. Several students, the BBC Correspondent reported from Srinagar, were injured when a hand-grenade was thrown on them by somebody during the demonstration.

The students raised slogans demanding immediate plebiscite in the occupied State. The demonstrators paraded the main roads and streets of Srinagar when they were forced by heavily armed Police to disperse. The Police arrested 70 students in connection with Thursday’s rallies.

The BBC quoting the puppet Chief Minister, G.M. Sadiq, said that the situation in various parts of occupied Kashmir continued to be serious. Mr Sadiq said that there were still over 1,500 freedom fighters in Srinagar alone. He described these freedom fighters as “infiltrators”. The BBC Correspondent also reported that curfew is continuing in Srinagar where the Indian Army is present in large numbers.

[Meanwhile, as reported by our Correspondent from London], Indian authorities, assisted by British-owned tea companies in India, are trying to prevent Pakistani tea from reaching Britain and other Western markets through a boycott of Chittagong tea auctions. This was confirmed today [Oct 8] by the city editor of “The Times” who reported that Pakistani tea “would certainly be usable and acceptable in blends for the British market, but purchasers might still run the risk of upsetting the Indian Government. In the long run Pakistan might have to offer tea to a sympathetic Power. Possibly China or Iraq.”

“The Times” report said that “the Indian Navy might have tried to intercept the ships” carrying consignments of Assam tea from Chittagong. Over six and a half million pounds of Assam tea, worth about two million pounds, was in transit through East Pakistan when India attacked Lahore on Sept 6.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2015

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