Moderate Hurriyat alleges harassment of people

Srinagar, Jan 19: The moderate Hurriyat Conference, led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, has termed as ''highly condemnable'' the alleged harassment of people in the Kashmir valley on the ''pretext of security measures'' ahead of the Republic Day.

In a statement here, a spokesman of the moderate Hurriyat Conference while expressing serious concern alleged that police and security forces during frisking and checking subject the civilians to ''severe humiliation''.

He alleged that the worst victims of the alleged harassment were former militants. ''They are asked to present themselves before security forces and police. The entire state has turned into a garrison,'' the spokesman alleged.

''The government has given a free hand to security forces to unleash a reign of terror on innocent people. Such steps will not only hamper the process of confidence building, but also put a question mark on the intentions of the administration,'' he said.

UNI