Srinagar
Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control and the world over observed the Right to Self-Determination Day, today, with the pledge that they would continue the struggle for settlement of the Kashmir dispute through a free and fair plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations.
It was on this day in 1949 when the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution supporting the Kashmiris’ right to decide their future by themselves through UN-sponsored referendum. The day was marked by various activities including rallies, seminars and conferences in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan and across the world to seek the intervention by the international community to save the Kashmiris from extermination by the fascist Modi regime.
APHC General Secretary Molvi Bashir Ahmad in a statement in Srinagar urged the UN to ensure the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination as it ensured this right in East Timor and Southern Sudan.
Other Hurriyat leaders and organizations including Bilal Ahmed Sidiqui, Mir Shahid Saleem, Abdul Ahad Parra, Yasmeen Raja, Farida Bahenji, Qazi Muhammad Irshad, Chaudhry Shaheen Iqbal, Jammu and Kashmir National Front, Jammu and Kashmir Freedom Front, Tehreek-e-Wahdat-e-Islami, Islamic Political Party and Jammu and Kashmir Employees Movement in their statements urged the UN to prevent South Asia from an impending catastrophe by resolving the Kashmir dispute.
An analytical report released by Kashmir Media Service, today, said that marred by killings, arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions, curfew, crackdowns and cordon and search operations, occupied Jammu and Kashmir has been made a living hell for the Kashmiris by Hindutva backed Indian government. Based on interviews and statements of people representing different segments of life, the report said that Kashmiris are also humans and world needs to pay attention to end their suffering.
Anjuman Auqaf Jamia Masjid Srinagar in a statement issued on completion of 17 months of illegal house detention of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, today, demanded his release.
The participants of a protest demonstration organized by APHC-AJK chapter outside the UN Observer’s Office in Islamabad demanded plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir in the light of the UNSC resolution, passed on January 5, 1949. Jammu and Kashmir Forum France, Friends of Kashmir International, Ittehad-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir and JKLF (Haqeeqi) organised a protest demonstration outside the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. In Muzaffarabad a rally organized by Pasban-e-Hurriyat was taken out from Burhan Wani Shaheed Chowk to the UN observer’s office in the city.
The Kashmir valley remained cut off from the outside world for the third consecutive day, today, as snowfall affected surface and air traffic. Thousands of vehicles including loaded trucks are stranded on the Srinagar-Jammu highway because of landslides and snowfall.—KMS
