PPP Office Raided, Chairman Arrested, Released, House-arrested

Srinagar, August 20: A police contingent raided the Rajbagh headquarters of the People’s Political Party (PPP) early morning today and arrested the party Chairman and senior Hurriyat leader, Er. Hilal Ahmed War. Engineer War was taken to Police Station Maisuma and was lodged there and released after two hours. But surprisingly in a matter of a few more hours, War was put under house arrest. This bizarre development of events is seen as a despicable tactic by the party leadership and a move on part of New Delhi’s agencies to scuttle the NSA-level Indo-Pak talks scheduled for August 23. “If New Delhi believes that by keeping the Kashmiri leadership away from the talks or any development related to Kashmir issue, it is grossly mistaken. It will backfire big time and New Delhi will have to pay a heavy price for it,” said Er. War. PPP Chairman said that Delhi is shrinking space for those who want to talk and believe in political and peaceful resolution. “New Delhi is pushing youths towards violence by playing dirty games and the Indian media is a part and parcel of these porno-nationalist misadventures,” said War, “New Delhi must know the situation will get so ugly that it will never be able to control it.”
PPP condemns the police action in the strongest of the words and believes that measures like these will only deteriorate the situation further. “These arm-twisting tactics of the state will further worsen the situation and deepen the distrust,” said a party spokesman, “We can’t take it hands down. India is shrinking the space for peaceful dissenters as well. Actions like these are highly condemnable and will force even the pacifists to think of other options.”