Thousands of people participated in the pro-Palestine rallies organized on the occasion of the International Quds Day on March 28 in various districts of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, and neighboring Ladakh.
People carried Palestinian flags and shouted slogans against the Israeli genocide in Gaza. They denounced US support to Zionist wars in the region and condemned the failure of the global community to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against Palestinians. In some places, people also carried flags of Hezbollah and portraits of its late leader Hassan Nasrallah who was assassinated by an Israeli airstrike in September. People also carried posters of Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas who was killed by Israeli forces in October.
International Quds (Jerusalem) Day has been celebrated every year on the last Friday of Ramadan since 1979 to express solidarity with the Palestinian people seeking independence from Israel’s decades-long colonial occupation.
State repression of solidarity
In response to the mass protests, law enforcement authorities slapped charges on participants and organizers under the country’s draconian anti-terrorism act, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Authorities filed cases against participants under various other charges including attempts to incite violence. They alleged that protesters were trying to provoke anti-India sentiments among people by carrying posters and flags of Hezbollah, Hamas, and Hassan Nasrallah, The Wire reported. A police official told The Wire, that protesters allegedly “aimed at inciting the public and encouraging elements associated with terrorism to engage in subversive activities and to revive terrorist activities within the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir”.
According to The Wire, those targeted in the case have not been revealed, only that the police filed the cases.
UAPA has been called a draconian law by most of the country’s political opposition and human rights groups as it allows the courts to deny bail for an indefinite period. They claim that the law is misused by the ultra-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Delhi to target its political opponents and to silence critical voices.
The BJP government in Delhi, in its attempts to go closer to the US and Israel, has abandoned India’s long held pro-Palestinian stance and tried to restrict the public expressions of solidarity with Palestine ever since the war in Gaza began in October 2023. Already the government criminalized pro-Palestine rallies and arrested several individuals for criticizing Israeli actions.
Read more: Nationwide protests in India condemn Israel’s crimes and expose US hypocrisy on democracy
On March 28, authorities also shut the main mosque in Srinagar, denying hundreds of people who gathered to perform ritual prayers on the last Friday of Ramadan in order to prevent any large scale protests afterwards.
The restrictions on offering prayers in Srinagar and imposition of UAPA in response to Quds Day rallies invited strong reaction from various opposition leaders who called it an “act of repression” of popular movements and “an act of cowardice” by the government in Delhi.
