SIALKOT: About 50 persons were injured, 20 of them seriously, in Srinagar today [Jan 9] when police teargassed and lathi-charged a big mob of demonstrators who had taken out a procession to protest against the externment of Sheikh Abdullah and Mirza Afzal Beg from Occupied Kashmir.

According to official figures 350 persons were arrested after fierce clashes with police in Srinagar and other places in held state. Complete strike was observed in the occupied Kashmir and several processions were taken out to condemn the Indian Government and puppet Government of M Sadiq for the undemocratic step against the Kashmiri patriots.

… The puppet ‘Government’ clamped down on the “Plebiscite Front” by externing former Chief Minister from the state and arresting 300 of his followers in a pre-dawn swoop through the Valley. Also barred from the held state under the Preventive Detention Act was the Front’s President Mirza Afzal Beg and Secretary G. M. Shah.

Sheikh Abdullah, who has been demanding a plebiscite in Kashmir, was given a formal notice this morning while visiting New Delhi.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2021