Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Kashmir Solidarity Day is being observed to-day to express wholehearted support of Pakistani nation to the just struggle of Kashmiri people for their inalienable right to self-determination under United Nations resolu-tions.
This time the day is being observed after India revoked the special status of occupied Kashmir in August last year to breach of all international laws, and since then the entire population of the held territory has been under lockdown.
On the occasion, Prime Minister Pakistan Imran Khan will address the special session of AJK Legislative Assembly in Muzaffarabad to express solidarity with the oppressed Kashmiri brethren.
Human chains will be formed at Kohala, Mangla, Holar and Azad Pattan points linking Pakistan and Azad Kashmir.
In the federal capital, the citizens will form a human chain at D-Chowk to express solidarity with their oppressed Kashmiri brethren.
The National Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution calling for India to reverse the annexation of Jammu and Kashmir.
Chairman of Special Committee on Kashmir Syed Fakhar Imam tabled the resolution in the assembly.
The resolution “demands that India immediately reverse and rescind its illegal action August 5 and October 31, 2019”. It further says that India should also allow the media, international governments and rights organisations and observers to access the occupied region so that they are “able to assess and report the human rights situation there”.
The Indian government had on August 5, 2019 repealed Article 370 of its constitution, stripping occupied Kashmir of its special status. It also dividing up occupied Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories; one Jammu and Kashmir, and the other the Buddhist-dominated high altitude region of Ladakh. The bifurcation of the territory came into effect on October 31 last year.
The resolution passed by the parliament Tuesday also called upon the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to “immediately convene” a special summit on the Kashmir issue.
It condemned the atrocities committed by the Indian forces in the occupied territory, including the detention of Kashmiri leadership and youth, usage of pellet guns against innocent civilians. The resolution also denounced violence against women by the Indian forces, “especially the use of rape as a weapon of war” as well as the “deliberate targetting of civilian population” in ceasefire violations. It also noted with concern the continuing lockdown of occupied Kashmir and deployment of troops in the territory and India’s “strongarm tactics” to change the ethnic demography of the region.
The parliament welcomed the consultations of the United Nations Security Council held last month and lauded the role played by human rights organisations, statesmen and stateswomen, international media and the governments of China, Turkey, Malaysia and Iran.
