The police in Jammu and Kashmir have arrested 21 people, including a young graffiti artist, for extending solidarity with Palestinians and staging protests against Israel’s terror attacks in Gaza.
Mudasir Gul, a prominent young artist from Kashmir has been charged under the draconian PSA (Public Safety Act) by authorities for drawing artwork in support of Palestine.
The 32-year-old artist painted a face of a sobbing woman, wearing Palestine’s flag as the headscarf, and wrote “We Are Palestine” on a bridge in Padshahi Bagh, a neighbourhood in Srinagar.
He was detained after videos of some youths protesting against Israel next to the graffiti, went viral on social media.
The police took Gul took the graffiti site and forced him to deface it with black paint.
Besides Gul, Sarjan Barkati, a prominent religious scholar was was taken into preventive custody. The Print reported that the preacher’s detention came after a video of him extending support to Palestine surfaced on social media.
The Hindu reported that Barkati had “addressed people during Id [Eid] prayers” and “prayed for Palestine”.
Police said in a statement 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.
The statement said police were “sensitive to public anguish” but wouldn’t allow those sentiments to “trigger violence, lawlessness, and disorder.”
