AJK politicians, lawmakers rally to observe ‘Martyrs’ Day’

Call on world community to intervene in IOK

MUZAFFARABAD: In a rare show of explicit support for the ongoing struggle for the rights of self-determination of people living in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir, senior politicians and parliamentarians of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) staged a rally to observe Martyrs Day.

The rally was staged in the centre of AJK capital Muzaffarabad on Thursday to express solidarity with the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK). Led by AJK’s Acting Prime Minister Tariq Farooq, assembly members, ministers and other political leaders from both sides of the aisle, the rally marched from the Central Press Club to the District Complex.

The participants of the rally shouted pro-freedom and anti-India slogans such as ‘go India, go back’ and ‘we want freedom’.

Farooq said that the people of Kashmir have been rendering sacrifices for their right of self-determination.

“Since July 13, 1931, till today, the people of Kashmir have sacrificed everything for the cause. The United Nations passed dozens of resolutions to settle the dispute as per the wishes of the Kashmiris,” he said as he urged the world community to come forward and take the notice of the genocide in IOC by the so-called largest democracy on the planet.



The acting AJK premier asked what kind of sacrifices does the world want to see before it intervenes to settle the seven decades old dispute which has put the peace and security of South Asia at stake.

“Kashmiris have sacrificed their vision for the great cause,” Farooq went on to say, adding that “More than 15,000 people, particularly the youth, were blinded by Indian forces who shot the unarmed citizenry with lethal pellet guns and all the while the world slept.”

He urged the UN, the European Union and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to come forward and put pressure on India to settle the Jammu and Kashmir dispute once for all.

Former Jamaat-e-Islami AJK chapter chief and legislative assembly member Abdur Rashid Turabi said that people across the Line of Control (LoC) wish to remind the world on July 13 to play their role in settling the dispute.

Turabi said that Kashmiris have proved that heavy Indian military buildup had failed to control or discourage Kashmiris from the freedom struggle.

“If any nation which is being currently considered to be brave around the world, it is only Kashmiris who have been writing the history of their motherland with blood which is also sacred to the people of AJK and every Kashmiri living in any part of the world.,” Turabi bellowed.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) parliamentary leader in AJK assembly Abdul Majid Khan said that Kashmiris are peace loving people and condemn the attack on Amarnath Yatris in IOK since they have been facing state terrorism for the past last 27 years.

The PTI leader urged New Delhi that a lot of water had flown under the bridges and that it was time to respect the public sentiment in IOK and settle the dispute once for all.

Separately, seminars, debates and processions were organised in all the ten districts of AJK to shed the light on the sacrifices of the martyrs of July 13, 1931.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2017.