Qureshi, Bilawal attend Eid prayers in AJK to express solidarity with Kashmiri people

Both leaders alongside AJK PM Farooq Haider stage anti-India rally, chant pro-freedom slogans

MUZZAFARABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari offered Eidul Azha prayers in Muzzafarabad to express solidarity with the people of Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK).

Offered my Namaz e Eid al Adha in Azad Kashmir in unity with the people of Kashmir.We must pursue a pact for peace; for the right of every Kashmiri to self determination.This Eid, 🇵🇰 prays for peace & justice for our Kashmiri children, sisters & brothers. #Kashmir #EidMubarak pic.twitter.com/WnL900zIkY

— Shah Mahmood Qureshi (@SMQureshiPTI) August 12, 2019

Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider was also present on the occasion.

FM Qureshi, in the backdrop of the constitutional abrogation scrapping Kashmir's special status, appealed the Indian government to lift the curfew immediately so as to enable the Muslim community to attend Eid prayers in the occupied valley.

He remarked that Pakistan will continue to highlight the Kashmir dispute and called on India to stop the human rights violations in the occupied territory.

"Kashmir is an international dispute. It has resolutions in the United Nations and the world has to settle it as per the wishes of the people of Kashmir," the foreign minister said, adding that all political parties are united in the cause.

Referring to the situation in IoK at present, FM Qureshi said that the Modi-led government had made it apparent that BJP is promoting the extremist ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Calling the curfew in Kashmir to be the "worst kind of human rights violation", Bilawal urged the international community to galvanise support for the cause of the Kashmiri people and the disputed territory.

Endorsing FM Qureshi and Bilawal's stance on the matter, the AJK premier said that atrocities in IoK following the August 5 development had led to consequential human rights violations. "No one is aware of the actual state of affairs in occupied Kashmir," he said.

FM Qureshi and Bilawal including the AJK premier led an anti-India rally that commenced from Eidgah and culminated at the Upper Adda Chowk in Muzaffarabad. Scores of Kashmiri people attended the rally chanting anti-India and pro-freedom slogans.

After the Eid prayers, residents in other parts of AJK took to streets to protest against Indian brutality.