The All Parties Hurriyat Conference Azad Jammu and Kashmir (APHC-AJK) chapter organized a protest demonstration outside the Indian High Commission in Islamabad to mark India’s Independence Day as Black Day Thursday.
The participants of the demonstration expressed concern over the increasing Indian atrocities, illegal detentions and imposition of continued curfew by India in occupied Kashmir. They warned the Indian government to desist from suppressing the people of the territory through military might and other oppressive tactics.
They said that New Delhi must realize the fact that it would not be able to subdue the Kashmiris’ freedom sentiment through use of brute force.
Addressing on the occasion, the APHC-AJK leaders said Kashmir dispute is not a territorial or bilateral dispute between Pakistan and India.
They said it is an international dispute acknowledged by the UN through its resolutions accepted by the two countries and it pertains to the life of millions of Kashmiris.
They termed the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35-A of the Indian Constitution by India as a deep conspiracy and vowed that the Kashmiris will resist this ploy at every level.
The APHC-AJK leaders said that on one hand, India had been trying to suppress the Kashmiris’ just struggle for securing their right to self-determination for the past over seventy-one years through the use of brute force, while on the other, it had been hatching conspiracies to change the demographic composition of occupied Kashmir.
They said that New Delhi was following the Israeli pattern to change the demography of the territory by setting-up separate colonies for retired army soldiers and migrant Kashmiri Pandits, giving the permanent residents’ rights to Indian citizens and ending special rights and privileges of the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir. They said that India had usurped all basic rights of the people of occupied Kashmir by abrogating the special status of the territory.
The speakers deplored that the Indian authorities have besieged occupied Kashmir by deploying fifteen lac troops in every nook and corner of the territory to prevent Kashmiris from holding demonstrations against the repeal of Article 370.
They said that the occupied territory is facing severe shortage of essential commodities including food and medicines, thus leading to the worst kind of humanitarian crisis.
The APHC-AJK leaders said that the world community must take steps to stop Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir.
They said that Pakistan should initiate measures through the UN for ending the lockdown and restoration of media in occupied Kashmir and request the World Body to deploy its peace-keeping force in the territory to prevent genocide of the Kashmiris at the hands of the Indian troops.—DNA
