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SRINAGAR: Indian forces in Indian Occupied Kashmir have apprehended 21 people for allegedly disturbing public order by expressing solidarity with Palestinians on Sunday.
Police Inspector-General Vijay Kumar talking to the media said that 20 people were arrested in Srinagar, and one more from a village in South Kashmir, adding that some of the arrested could soon be released after “counseling and assurances from their parents that they would desist from such acts in future”.
Kumar said that the arrested included Sarjan Barkati, a prominent anti-India cleric and activist, for painting graffiti on a bridge in Srinagar with the words “We are Palestine”.
In a statement from the police authorities, it was articulated that they were keeping a “close watch on elements who are attempting to leverage the unfortunate situation in Palestine to disturb public peace and order” in Kashmir, adding that the police were “sensitive to public anguish” but would not allow these sentiments to “trigger violence, lawlessness and disorder”.
Kashmiris in the long-disputed territory has historically shown a strong sense of solidarity with Palestinians, often staging anti-Israel protests when fighting broke out in Gaza.
Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip has entered its seventh consecutive day, with air raids killing more than 33 Palestinians, injuring several others and flattening at least two residential buildings on Sunday.
At least 33 people died in Gaza after 150 Israeli airstrikes hit the besieged enclave in one hour on Sunday in what a Palestinian security source said was the “most intense” shelling since the second intifada or uprising that began in 2000.
Rescue teams worked to pull out dead from vast piles of smoking rubble and toppled buildings as relatives wailed in terror and sorrow.
Rescue officials said almost half of the rockets targeted the Gaza City district of al-Wehda where residential houses, infrastructure and roads were destroyed.
Health officials confirmed 34 people were killed overnight – including Dr Ayman Abu al-Ouf, head of internal medicine at Shifa hospital – following Israeli bombardment on their homes. Five children were found alive under the debris, the health ministry added.
“We can still hear people shouting from under the rubble,” said Medhat Hamdan, a civil defense worker who came from Khan Younis to Gaza City and worked nonstop for 11 hours to save lives.
“Continuing to search for martyrs or missing from the massacre on Al-Wehda Street after retrieving more than 34 martyrs, most of them children and women,” a Palestinian-affiliated, youth-oriented media service tweeted.
مواصلة البحث عن شــهــداء أو مفقودين من مجـــزرة شارع الوحدة بعد انتــشال أكثر من 34 شــهيـدًا غالبيتهم من الأطفال والنساء#GazaUnderAttack #غزة_تحت_القصف pic.twitter.com/yjvNFxmQQ5
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) May 16, 2021
