SRINAGAR: Authorities tightened security across the Valley after two days of protests over the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and incidents of stone pelting. Amid the crackdown, former Srinagar Mayor Junaid Mattu on Tuesday claimed that his security cover had been withdrawn.
National Conference MP Aga Ruhullah also alleged that his security had been downgraded and that his Facebook account was blocked.
“Some fools in J&K Police and administration think that by withdrawing/downgrading my security detail and suspending my Facebook account will stop me from calling out their atrocities. It is laughable!(sic),” the NC MP Ruhullah posted on X.
“Neither am I fascinated by these petty things nor scared by their absence around me.
My father was martyred standing for his people. That’s what fascinates me. That’s my course,” he said.
“I am a citizen of this country and I will exercise my rights to stand up against your atrocities, violation of laws, freedom and democracy given to us by the constitution, to the last drop of my blood,” the NC MP said. “Take whatever little you have left there. These foolish acts will not stop me.”
Earlier, former Srinagar Mayor Junaid Mattu claimed that his security was withdrawn after his public remarks on the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Syed Ali Khamenei and for speaking against the BJP-led dispensation.
He termed it a measure aimed to silence him.
Mattu lamented that mainstream Kashmiri politicians are expected to remain “neutral and silent in the face of Israel massacring young school girls and assassinating a Head of State or face consequences in ‘New India’”. “Or you have to issue statements pontificating to the mourners while praising the administration and the police.”
The former mayor claimed in Kashmir today where “fellow mainstream leaders have surrendered and sold their tongues to the BJP-led Government and chosen to sound shamefully diplomatic over the assassination of Khamenei and brutal war on Iran and Palestine, I will continue to commit the crime of having a conscience”.
“The withdrawal of security is aimed to suppress my voice. But it won’t stop me from speaking up for humanity, justice and to seek answers about my country’s and its leadership’s unprecedented moral abdication when it comes to Iran,” the former Mayor said.
Mattu in a post on X claimed that a police contingent arrived at his residence in the night to remove the guard at his residence.
“To think that I will stop speaking up against the gruesome injustice and cruelty perpetuated against Iran and our own Government’s moral abdication in the face of these unjust, barbaric crimes against humanity by Israel and the US - not going to happen,” Mattu claimed.
The alleged withdrawal of security of ex Srinagar Mayor and downgrading of security of NC MP comes amid heightened tensions in Kashmir following two-day large scale protests over Khamenei’s killing, incidents of stone pelting, and security restrictions imposed by authorities to maintain law and order.