Indian forces, as part of their intensified state-terror campaign, have detained several Kashmiris—including a doctor and his wife—in fabricated and politically motivated cases in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Personnel of Counter Intelligence Kashmir (CIK), backed by Indian paramilitary troops, arrested a doctor and his spouse during cordon-and-search operations and house raids in the city. During the raid, the forces detained Dr. Umer Farooq Butt, posted at the Super Specialty Department of SMHS Hospital Srinagar, along with his wife Shahzada Akhtar.

The troops also seized their mobile phones, laptop, tablet, bank documents, and books. CIK officials sought to justify the arrest of Shahzada Akhtar by accusing her of links with Dukhtaran-e-Milat Jammu and Kashmir, a women’s organisation advocating a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute. Its leaders—Aasiya Andrabi.

Fehmeeda Sofi, and Nahida Nasreen—have been languishing in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail since 2017 under concocted charges for demanding plegiscite in Kashmir. Indian forces also carried out cordon-and-search operations in several areas of Srinagar, Kulgam, and Islamabad districts, continuing the BJP-led regime’s sweeping crackdown under draconian laws targeting freedom-loving Kashmiris demanding their UN-recognized right to self-determination. 

Kashmiri civil society groups condemned the latest arrests, warning that India has now widened its repression to target the professional class—doctors, academics, and other public figures—as part of a broader campaign to criminalize political sentiment in the occupied territory. The forces continue to operate with absolute impunity during such raids, committing widespread human rights violations without accountability.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)