In Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the administration under the New Delhi-appointed Lieutenant Governor once again placed All Parties Hurriyat Conference senior leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq under house arrest today, preventing him from offering Friday congregational prayers at the historic Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.

According to Kashmir Media Service, a statement issued by the office of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said the authorities confined him to his residence in Srinagar and barred him from proceeding to the historic Jamia Masjid to perform the important religious obligation of Friday prayers.

The statement described the move as a blatant interference in religious affairs and said arrests, restrictions and repeated curbs cannot silence the voice of the people or suppress their aspirations.

APHC spokesman Advocate Abdul Rashid Minhas, in a statement issued in Srinagar, said India has turned the occupied territory into an open prison, depriving the Kashmiri people of their fundamental rights.  

He said Indian forces have made the life miserable for the people through cordon and search operations and other repressive measures.

He said that the BJP's Hindutva-driven government has given Indian forces and investigative agencies a free hand to target unarmed Kashmiris, while those raising their voices against Indian repression are routinely booked under draconian laws.

He urged the United Nations to intervene to end India's escalating repression in the occupied territory and facilitate the resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with UN resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

Meanwhile, in Ramban district, Hindutva activists subjected three Muslim youths to a brutal assault, leaving one of them in critical condition.

Around 17 activists attacked the victims with sticks and snatched their mobile phones.

Despite a formal complaint having been lodged, the police have yet to arrest any of the attackers.