The All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders have paid rich tributes to prominent martyred liberation leaders Muhammad Afzal Guru and Muhammad Maqbool Butt ahead of their martyrdom anniversaries.
According to Kashmir Media Service, India had sent Muhammad Afzal Guru to the gallows in New Delhi’s infamous Tihar Jail on 9th February in 2013 in a fake case related to an attack on the Indian parliament in 2001. Muhammad Maqbool Butt was hanged by India in the same jail on 11th February in 1984 for his role in Kashmir freedom movement. The bodies of Muhammad Maqbool Butt and Muhammad Afzal Guru remain buried in the premises of Tihar jail.
The APHC leaders including Ghulam Muhammad Khan Sopori, Syed Bashir Andrabi, Khawaja Firdous, Muhammad Yousuf Naqash, Javaid Ahmed Mir, Farida Bahenji, Umar and Abdul Samad Inqilabi said that their sacrifice of Kashmiri martyrs including Maqbool Butt and Afzal Guru would not be allowed to go waste. They urged India to return the mortal remains of the martyred leaders to the Kashmiris so that they could be accorded decent burial.
The APHC leaders said that the Kashmiri people would continue their struggle for securing their right to self-determination till complete success. They maintained that the unresolved Kashmir dispute was main cause of tension between India and Pakistan.
The leaders urged India to accept the reality that it would not succeed to continue its illegal hold on Jammu and Kashmir for long. They appealed to the international community to play a role in resolving the lingering Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions and aspirations of the Kashmiri people.
Meanwhile, APHC-AJK leaders, Syed Yousuf Naseem, Altaf Hussain Wani, Mushtaq Ahmed Butt, Muhammad Sultan Butt, Altaf Ahmed Butt, Zahid Safi and Zahid Ashraf in their separate statements paid homage to Muhammad Afzal Guru and Muhammad Maqbool Butt. They added that due to the sacrifices of the Kashmiri martyrs the Kashmir dispute has become a focus of attention at the international level.
A rally will be held on February 9th at Afzal Guru Chowk in Domel, Muzaffarabad, to commemorate the sacrifices of martyrs Afzal Guru and Mohammad Maqbool Butt.—KMS
