People's Democracy

J&K DYF Rally Demands Jobs And Peace

Police Answers With Lathicharge

The Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Youth Federation held an impressive protest demonstration in Srinagar on May 8 highlighting the demands of the youth of the state. Among the major demands were the immediate lifting of ban on recruitment to government jobs and putting an end to unnecessary harassment of the youth in Kashmir.

The Police did not allow the protestors to present a memorandum to the government and when the youth resisted this denial, the Police brutally lathicharged them, injuring many in the process.

More than 2000 youth assembled in the Sher-e-Kashmir Park in Srinagar for this demonstration. They wanted to go to Secretariat to hand over a memorandum to the government highlighting their demands.

When the Police did not allow the demonstrators to proceed, they took a different route to the chief minister’s residence on Moulana Azad Road. The Police resorted to a lathicharge to disperse the demonstrators, who raided slogans against the Mufti government saying that it was “insensitive” to the “burning issues” in Kashmir.

The DYF leaders, Mohanmad Amin Dar and Mohammad Yaqub Ganai, addressed the rally and castigated the government for “failure” to address issues concerning the youth.

They charged that the government had “forgotten” its promise and demanded that it should formulate a comprehensive employment policy and put an end to harassment of youth.

The demands highlighted in the memorandum, which was handed over to the chief minister, include the release of frozen central vacancies, providing allowance to unemployed educated youth, rehabilitation of the victims of disappeared persons and of violence.

Meanwhile the Delhi unit of the J&K Democratic Youth Federation called a meeting in New Delhi on May 9 to protest this attack on youth by the J&K government. The meeting was presided by unit president Farooq Brazloo and secretary Subhash Pandita, who strongly condemned the excesses on youth committed by the police.The members present at the meeting raised slogans against the state government over the issues concerning youth.