Draconian laws being used by India to shrink cyber space for Kashmiris: Shehryar Afridi

ISLAMABAD, July 25 (DNA): Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on
Kashmir Shehryar Khan Afridi has condemned the draconian laws by India
to shrink cyber space for Kashmiris.

Addressing the participants of a seminar held here under the aegis of
All Parties Hurriyat Conference that Indian act of muzzling voices of
Kashmiris was a clear violation of the United Nations Conventions  which
guarantee and safeguard Freedom of Speech and expression.

He said that India is using the draconian laws like the Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) to silence the voices of the Kashmiri
people on Social Media  applications and other platforms. However, he
said, India can’t succeed in its vicious plan.

Afridi said that Pakistan would take up the matter with the UN and other
international diplomatic forums. “We will never allow India to deprive
Kashmiris from their basic right of freedom of speech and expression.
The world must take cognizance of the violation of the freedom right of
the Kashmiris,” he said.

Afridi also condemned the arrest journalists and senior Hurriyat leader
under this Act which include Masrat Alam Bhat, Aasiya Andrabi, Nahida
Nasreen, Fahmeeda Sofi, Yasin Malik, Shabir Shah, Altaf Shah, Ayaz
Akbar, Mehrajudin Kalwal and others. He said the law terrorizes Kashmir
population because it gives unbridled power to the Indian occupant
state.

“It is not only criminalizes India’s own constitution but also it
endangers the concept of fair trial,” he said. The draconian law
empowers Indian government to proscribe even individuals as “terrorists”
and jail them for at least seven years, if convicted, he said.

Afridi said that Kashmiri and Pakistani diaspora in across the world
must raise the draconian laws being used by India to muzzle the Kashmiri
voices and the world needed to be informed of the racist agenda being
pursued by India’s fascist regime of Narendra Modi.

He said its about time that Indian minorities must raise their voices
for Kashmiris because the Kashmiris and Indian minorities were being
targeted by Sanghi fascist and racist killers the same way.