Ac­tivists of the Dal Khalsa and Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal (Am­rit­sar) and hu­man rights ac­tivists were barred from en­ter­ing Kash­mir to­day to ob­serve In­ter­na­tional Hu­man Rights Day in Sri­na­gar. While In­dia talks of nor­malcy in Kash­mir, clearly In­dia has lots to hide. There are no rights for the peo­ple of Kash­mir and no rights for other peo­ples to protest for rights of the peo­ple of Kash­mir.

WHILE THE IN­TER­NA­TIONAL COM­MU­NITY has been mak­ing some muted noises from time to time and civil lib­er­ties ac­tivists have come out with dev­as­tat­ing re­ports of hu­man rights vi­o­la­tions, In­dia is stead­fast in main­tain­ing the iron cur­tain sep­a­rat­ing Kash­mir from the rest of the world.

Act­ing upon the or­ders of the mag­is­trate of Kathua, cit­ing law and or­der prob­lems, the Kathua po­lice stopped ac­tivists of Dal Khalsa and Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal (Am­rit­sar) at the Mad­hopur-Kathua in­ter­state bor­der, stop­ping them from go­ing to Sri­na­gar to ob­serve In­ter­na­tional Hu­man Rights Day there to­mor­row. The sub-di­vi­sional mag­is­trate Khalil Kant Kha­juria is­sued writ­ten or­ders pro­hibit­ing the march to en­ter into the state.

The Dal Khalsa state­ment is­sued by party pres­i­dent Harpal Singh Cheema here to­day ex­posed the fact that since the last eigh­teen weeks, the his­toric Jama Masjid in Sri­na­gar -the wor­ship cen­tre for the hun­dreds of thou­sands of Mus­lims there is locked. Ad­dress­ing the gath­er­ing party chief and ad­vo­cate Cheema said, “Such a das­tardly vi­o­la­tion of re­li­gious rights of peo­ple to pray and wor­ship is un­prece­dented and the rulers of the In­dian state are an­swer­able for this to the peo­ple of Kash­mir, hu­man rights de­fend­ers, the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity, the United Na­tions and even to God.”

“We will not stay silent and con­tinue to ex­pose the lies of the In­dian state and stand for the rights of the peo­ple of Kash­mir who are fac­ing the worst per­se­cu­tion in the pre­sent times,” read the joint-state­ment is­sued by the Dal Khalsa and Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal (Am­rit­sar) who had ven­tured to go to Kash­mir in an un­prece­dented pro­gram of its kind to once again fo­cus the at­ten­tion of the peo­ple of the world to the plight of the suf­fer­ing Kash­miris.

 Read also: Dal Khalsa ap­peals to UN to pro­tect mi­nori­ties in In­dia

Ex­press­ing shock at the move of the gov­ern­ment, party leader Har­cha­ran­jit Singh Dhami ar­gued with Mr. Kapil -the mag­is­trate on duty, that while the In­dian Home Min­is­ter Amit Shah is say­ing that every­thing is nor­mal in Kash­mir, then why we’re not be­ing al­lowed to go there, prompt­ing the pro­test­ers to say that, ‘there is no nor­malcy in Kash­mir and Union gov­ern­ment are telling gross lies to hood­wink the world com­mu­nity.”

Dal Khalsa spokesper­son Kan­warpal Singh, while speak­ing at the sit-in protest at the bor­der said, ‘It is iron­i­cal that even on the oc­ca­sion of Hu­man Rights Day, we are not al­lowed to talk and up­hold hu­man rights. The stop­page of Sikh lead­ers and hu­man rights ac­tivists by the gov­ern­ment from en­ter­ing Jammu and Kash­mir is a loud de­c­la­ra­tion by the In­dian state that just as there are no rights of the peo­ple of Kash­mir. Not only that, even those who want to ob­serve Rights Day for the peo­ple of Kash­mir have no right to do so.”

“We will ap­prise the United Na­tions Hu­man Rights Coun­cil of this abuse of our fun­da­men­tal rights and vi­o­la­tion of the UN Hu­man Rights Char­ter by In­dia through the Dal Khalsa rep­re­sen­ta­tive in Geneva Prit­pal Singh,” de­clared party Pres­i­dent Harpal Singh Cheema. He said the UN and the Se­cu­rity coun­cil per­ma­nent mem­bers have failed the Kash­miri peo­ple who are reel­ing un­der state re­pres­sion since the Aug 5 lock­down. The pro­test­ers were car­ry­ing plac­ards to con­vey their mes­sage and sought the re­lease of po­lit­i­cal pris­on­ers both in Kash­mir and Pun­jab.