SRINAGAR; 14, Aug 2012: Hurriyat Chairman Syed Ali Geelani appealed to the people to boycott all the August 15 related functions and also not to allow their children to participate in such functions.He said that the Indian administration had pressed into service its whole machinery to ensure participation of the students of colleges and schools in the functions to be held in connection with the August 15. “In principle we are not against India’s independence. However, it has no justification to celebrate its Independence Day in occupied Kashmir until it gives the Kashmiris their right to self-determination,” he maintained.

The Chairman said that the Indian police was forcing the members of Tehreek-e-Hurriyet Jammu and Kashmir (TeH), to claim the responsibility for Pattan bomb blast. The blast that injured four policemen and three civilians was carried out on August 8 by unknown persons outside the Pattan police station.

He said that the police had arrested a Pattan-based TeH activist, Javaid Ahmad Bhat, who was being forced to accept the blame for the attack. “Javaid is lodged in the Pattan police station where police is torturing him physically. And he is being forced to accept that he carried out the attack and that he was given the grenade by another TeH member, Abdullah Nasir, of Palhalan,” Geelani added. He demanded immediate release of Javaid and Abdullah.