KASHMIRIS on both sides of the Line of Control and across the globe, observed Black Day on Monday to highlight the continued suffering of the Kashmiri people under India’s illegal occupation.
This somber occasion marks the anniversary of October 27, 1947, when Indian forces invaded Jammu and Kashmir, in direct violation of the Partition Plan and contrary to the will of the Kashmiri people. This day has been a poignant reminder of the Kashmiris’ struggle for their inalienable right to self-determination, a struggle that, over the decades, has been met with violence, oppression and repeated betrayals.
For over seven decades, the Kashmiri population has endured a relentless cycle of human rights abuses, arbitrary detention and violence at the hands of Indian forces. While the situation has remained dire for many years, the atrocities have significantly escalated under the leadership of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This oppression, underpinned by policies of demographic engineering and militarization, has cast a long shadow on the region, leaving a generation of Kashmiris struggling for their basic rights. The observance of Black Day is not merely an act of remembrance but a call to action. It is a reminder to the international community of its responsibility to address the situation in Kashmir with the urgency it demands. For far too long, the world has allowed political expediency to cloud its judgment on this critical issue, adopting a double standard that has prevented meaningful action. The failure to implement the promises made to the Kashmiri people in the form of a plebiscite, as laid out in the United Nations Security Council resolutions, remains a grave injustice. The right to self-determination is a fundamental human right, one that has been recognized by the United Nations and the international community at large. The Kashmiri people have waited long enough. They have borne the brunt of decades of conflict, trauma and injustice. It is time for the world to honour its commitments and ensure that the Kashmiri people are allowed to determine their own future free from foreign occupation. The call for a just and lasting resolution to the Kashmir dispute is not just a regional concern but a matter of global human rights. The time to act is now. Justice delayed is justice denied. The Kashmiri people deserve peace, dignity and the right to determine their own destiny.
