Srinagar
In occupied Kashmir, the Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Gilani, has expressed gratitude to the people and the government of Pakistan for observing the 5th February every year as Kashmir Solidarity Day.
Syed All Gilani in a statement issued in Srinagar, today, said this year the day has attained special importance as it is being observed in the backdrop of India’s August 5, 2019, illegal move of stripping occupied Jammu and Kashmir of its special status in contravention of international norms and the United Nations resolutions.
The APHC Chairman said that New Delhi’s last year’s unilateral actions are aimed at fully integrating occupied Kashmir with India and thereby fulfilling the long-held desire of Hindutva forces. He said time has come for Pakistan to send a solid and clear message to the world in general and India in particular that it will never ever accept India’s unilateral actions and whatever be the cost it will not sit idle until the Kashmiri people are given their inalienable right to self-determination and this year’s Kashmir Solidarity Day provides the best platform for it.
The veteran pro-freedom leader said that people in occupied Kashmir were challenging a big power which is being run by RSS-backed fascist forces and Pakistan was the only country which had been offering persistent and categorical support to the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.
Syed Ali Gilani hailed Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts post August 5 moves to highlight the Kashmir cause and Indian excesses at the international level and said it was because of this role that two meetings of the UN Security Council were held to discuss the Kashmir dispute in the past six months and international media and rights organizations had bitterly criticized New Delhi for its massive human rights violations.
The APHC Chairman urged Pakistan to double its efforts to raise the plight of the Kashmiri people at all the international platforms at a time when India has unleashed a reign of terror in Kashmir and night raids, beatings, detentions on mere suspicion and killings have become a routine. He lamented that the entire occupied Kashmir has been turned into a prison and stressed that Pakistan needs to exhibit persistence and steadfastness in impressing on the world to initiate urgent and effective measures to stop the Indian state terrorism against the Kashmiri people and take practical steps to resolve the Kashmir dispute. He pointed out Pakistan is a prime party to the Kashmir dispute and no lasting solution to it is possible without its active involvement.
While maintaining that Pakistan’s unflinching support to the Kashmir cause had always been a source of strength for the Kashmiris, Syed Ali Gilani said the fact that Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute and UN resolutions are pending in this regard. In occupied Kashmir, senior Hurriyat leader, Professor Abdul Ghani Butt, has thanked the people of Pakistan for their continued support to the Kashmir cause.
Professor Abdul Ghani Butt in a statement issued in Srinagar said on February 5, every year, Pakistan expresses solidarity with the people of occupied Kashmir which is an open evidence of Pakistanis’ love and affection with the people of the occupied territory and this day marks the commemoration of the sacrifices that the Kashmiri people have rendered in their freedom struggle.
He said the lingering Kashmir dispute is the main reason that the two nuclear powers are at loggerheads and the cause of the present instability in the south Asian region. “On this day we must show the world that ‘India’ is the murderer and any delay in the resolution of the Kashmir would pose threat to the world peace,” he added.
Professor Butt further said, people of Kashmir have been left at the mercy of Indian forces which are inflicting endless miseries and pain on innocent Kashmiris. He demanded that the world bodies should recognize the Kashmir solidarity day and it should be celebrated as international solidarity day with the people of Kashmir.—KMS
