Srinagar- Family members and relatives of an 18-year-old Srinagar resident on Saturday staged a protest demonstration in the Press Enclave seeking his release.
The teenager, Arsalan Feroz, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) after sleuths conducted a raid at Arsalan’s residential house in Srinagar on Friday.
One of the protesting family members told reporters that a team of NIA raided their residential house in Zaldagar when Arsalan when not present at home.
Talking to reporters at Press Enclave Srinagar, Arsalan’s sister appealed to DIG and IGP Kashmir to release his brother and do justice with his family.
While pleading for her brother’s innocence, she said that they will die without him. “He is studying in 12th standard but he was arrested by police during his board exams in the name of mobile phone checking. After that he is in jail for about one and half months and is not being allowed to appear in his board exams,” she added.
She also said that when the NIA raided their home, Arsalan was not present at home and his father called him back and asked him to co-operate with the agency.
Arsalan came home and went to the police station for questioning along with his father. “So why is the police saying that he was arrested from his home when he was not present at his home at the time of the raid,” she questioned.
She said that Arsalan’s father is a heart patient and he cannot live without his son. “It is our appeal to the authorities to release him as he has not done anything wrong,” she said.
Another male relative seconding the woman protestor said that he was in ‘Cargo’ – the headquarters of Jammu and Kashmir’s elite Special Operations Group – from where he was released after 40 days. “Five days before CID sleuths asked about his whereabouts and we informed them that he was home”, he said adding on Thursday morning, a raid was carried out by NIA and we asked to call him up from maternal house and he was taken along. “We came to know from (inter)net that he has been arrested on charges of being a stone pelter of Downtown and that he runs the gang of stone pelting and subsequently came to know that NIA has said of him to associated with TRF, recruiting and providing weapons to youth”, he said adding he is not involved in anything not even in stone pelting.
“Our family and mohalla residents have come here to demand his release”, he said.
Pertinently, the NIA on Friday issued a press statement claiming to have arrested ‘a TRF operative’ during raids in Srinagar in connection with a case of radicalising, motivating and recruiting youth of J&K by LeT.
“Yesterday (30.12.2021), conducted a search in Srinagar and arrested one TRF operative, Arsalan Feroz @ Arsalan Soub son of Feroz Ahmad Ahanger resident of Zaldagar, M. R. Gunj, Srinagar in Case No. RC 32/2021/NIA/DLI”, readS the statement.
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