The All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Masarrat Aalam Butt has appealed to the Kashmiri people in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Azad Kashmir and abroad to mark India’s Republic Day, the 26th January, as a Black Day to convey a message to the world that they reject illegal occupation of their homeland by India.
Masarrat Aalam Butt in a message from New Delhi’s infamous Tihar Jail said, India being involved in war crimes against humanity in the occupied territory has no right to claim to be a democracy. He called upon the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, to mobilize the international community towards the urgency for settlement of the Kashmir dispute.
APHC leader Molvi Bashir Irfani in a statement in Srinagar said that the word “democracy” is a mask on the true face of India behind which it is hiding its cruel imperialist face to deceive the world.
Meanwhile, Indian troops have intensified restrictions, harassment and intimidation in Srinagar and other parts of the territory in the name of so-called security measures ahead of India’s Republic Day. The forces’ checkpoints have mushroomed in all big cities and towns where commuters and pedestrians have to undergo vigorous frisking and checking. A close vigil is being maintained on all vehicles entering Srinagar city.
Posters with slogans like ‘Kashmiris observe Indian Republic Day as Black Day’ and ‘Indian Republic Day is Black Day for Kashmiris’, were displayed by “Azadi kai Matwalay” on walls, polls and prominent places in different parts of the Kashmir valley.
In India, the Hindutva outfits, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader, Ishwar Lal, has vowed to convert 30,000 mosques into temples in the Indian state of Rajasthan alone. Addressing a Trishul Deeksha event organised by the Bajrang Dal in Jodhpore, he said, the Hindutva organizations have made the Ram Temple on the site of demolished Babri Masjid and now they have to convert thirty thousand more mosques into temples. Trishuls were distributed among Hindus on the occasion.—KMS
