India Republic Day: Black day observed in AJK

Rallies held in Muzaffarabad, elsewhere

MUZAFFARABAD: Kashmiris on either side of the Line of Control (LoC) observed Republic Day in India as a ‘black day’ to remind the world that New Delhi has been denying the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir the right to vote on their future for the last six decades.

Despite heavy rain in the capital city of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), hundreds of Kashmiri refugees and members of Hizbul Mujahideen marched from District Complex to Central Press Club while carrying black flags and banners inscribed with slogans such as ‘India’s republic day is a black day for Kashmiris”.

Speakers appealed the United Nations UN, European Union EU, and human rights organisations to take the notice of the rise in human rights violations and extrajudicial killings in IOK.

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir People’s Freedom League (JKPFL) Chairman Muhammad Farooq Rehmani on Thursday strongly denounced the Indian government for the “judicial-murder policy” under which a “forcibly disappeared” Kashmiri youth – Muzaffar Ahmed Rathore of Kulgam Pulwama, IOK – was awarded a death sentence by a West Bengal court on Saturday after flouting all accepted legal and judicial norms and procedures.

He appealed to impartial jurists, defense counsels, human rights organisations and the United Nations to prevent India from sending Kashmiris to the gallows for being Muslims.

He added there were many innocent Kashmiris languishing in various Indian prisons for over 20 years charged with crimes had never committed. “Indian policy is to keep them imprisoned till their death,” he claimed.

He added that the West Bengal court judgment had spread shock and anger across Jammu and Kashmir, and that Kashmiris around the world were equally concerned.

Rehmani termed the claim of Indian Republic Day celebrations in Kashmir as ridiculous as ever and said January 26 is for all purposes a black Day in IOJ as the people have never accepted the Indian constitution, nor they will ever recognise it. “Kashmir will continue to fight for freedom and the right of self-determination according to the UN charter and its Security Council resolutions on referenda,” he concluded.

AJK PM presser

India has been violating United Nations resolutions on Occupied Kashmir for several decades. This was said by Acting Prime Minister of Azad Jammu Kashmir Tariq Farooq at a press conference in Islamabad on Thursday. He said New Delhi is committing grave human rights violations in the valley, but it will not succeed in suppressing the voice of unarmed Kashmiri people in their just struggle for self-determination.

Farooq said Pakistan is moving towards development, but some elements are attempting to derail the process. He said the people of AJK are well aware of this.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2017.