The All Parties Hurriyat Conference has appealed to the people of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir to observe India’s Independence Day on August 15 as a Black Day to convey the message to the international community that New Delhi continues to deny them their inalienable right to self-determination.
The APHC in a statement issued in Srinagar said that the people of the territory would observe complete shutdown and civil curfew on August 15 to express their resentment against Indian illegal occupation of their homeland. It said that the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the Kashmiris living in Pakistan and across the world would hold protest demonstrations to draw the attention of the international community towards the Indian brutalities in IIOJK.
The APHC maintained that India had no legal or moral justification to observe its Independence Day in Jammu and Kashmir as it had occupied the territory against the aspirations of the Kashmiri people. It appealed to the international community to fulfill its promises of resolving the Kashmir dispute by granting the Kashmiris their inalienable right to self-determination.
The High Court Bar Association of IIOJK in a statement issued in Srinagar expressed serious concern over the plight of Kashmiri political detainees lodged in different jails of the territory and India. It deplored that hundreds of Kashmiris, booked under draconian laws, Public Safety Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, have been lodged in Indian jails hundreds and thousands of miles away from their homes.
Meanwhile, a report released by Kashmir Media Service on the occasion of International Youth Day, today, said Indian troops, enjoying unbridled powers under black laws, are openly targeting, arresting and killing innocent Kashmiri youth during so-called cordon and search operations and fake encounters across the territory to suppress the Kashmiris’ ongoing freedom struggle. It said the troops have martyred 146 Kashmiri youth and arrested over 800 this year while over 96,100 Kashmiris, mostly youth, have fallen to the Indian bullets since 1989 till date in IIOJK. The report pointed out that the troops had intensified extra-judicial killings of the Kashmiri youth since 5th August 2019 when Narendra Modi-led fascist Indian government repealed the special status of IIOJK.
On the other hand, veteran Indian lawyer and human rights defender Prashant Bhushan has said that the Supreme Court of India as the guardian of civil liberties and rights of people in India is abdicating its responsibilities. Addressing an online event held by US-based civil rights group Indian American Muslim Council on “Indian Supreme Court Rolls Back Civil Liberties”, Prashant Bhushan said on one hand, the apex court is not hearing the important cases such as challenges to revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and the Citizenship Amendment Act, while on the other, it is denying bail to activists, journalists and other human rights defenders arrested on false charges. He said that Supreme Court judges including former chief justice of India, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, and Justice Arun Mishra were given post-retirement jobs for giving judgment in favour of the government.—KMS
