PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE
According to Radio Pakistan, the call for Black Day was given by All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Syed Ali Gilani and other Hurriyat leaders and organisations including Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led Hurriyat forum.
The Kashmiris marked the day with a shutter-down strike in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir region and anti-India demonstrations across the world.
This year in particular, the Kashmiris are protesting against the six-month-long lockdown in the occupied Himalayan region by the Narendra Modi-led government after it revoked IOJ&K’s special status in August last year.
US rips into India over rights abuses in occupied Kashmir
The on-going clampdown in IOJ&K
The occupied Himalayan region has been under siege since August 5 when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government revoked special status granting autonomy to IOJ&K and bifurcated it.
The highly militarized zone was locked down with thousands of additional troops with the political leadership imprisoned and a communication lockdown imposed days prior to the final decision.
Although the Indian government eased some of the curbs yet thousands remain under arrest with mobile and internet connections suspended.
New Delhi argued it was a “preventive” measure to avoid unrest despite the United Nations’ 2016 declaration that internet is a human right.
According to Reuters, the clampdown has cost occupied Kashmir’s economy a loss of more than $2.4 billion as sectors directly dependent on the internet with commerce and information technology the worst hit.
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