Pakistan

PM Imran in solidarity with the Kashmiri people on Martyrs' Day

Premier salute Kashmiris for their continued struggle against the illegal and barbaric Indian occupation

NEWS DESK July 13, 2020

On Kashmiri Martyrs' Day (today) Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed support for the Kashmiri people and their continued struggle for their right to self-determination.

"Today, on Yaum-e-Shuhada-e-Kashmir, we salute Kashmiris for their continued struggle against the illegal and barbaric Indian occupation of Jammu & Kashmir. The Shuhada of 13 July 1931 were the forefathers of today's Kashmiri resistance," said the premier in a tweet on Monday.

Today, on Yaum-e-Shuhada-e-Kashmir, we salute Kashmiris for their continued struggle against the illegal & barbaric Indian occupation of Jammu & Kashmir. The Shuhada of 13 July 1931 were the forefathers of today's Kashmiri resistance.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) July 13, 2020

He paid tribute to generations of Kashmiris who laid down their lives fighting for freedom from occupational forces.

Their descendants have, generation after generation, laid down their lives for freedom and today they continue to valiantly fight & defy a Hindutva Supremacist regime bent on demographic engineering to wipe out the Kashmiri people & their identity.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) July 13, 2020

And lastly, the premier reiterated Pakistan's support for the Kashmiri people and their right to self determination.

Pakistan has always stood steadfast for the Kashmiri right to self-determination and will continue to support this just struggle till IOJK is liberated from the clutches of Indian illegal occupation. That day is not far.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) July 13, 2020

Kashmiri Martyrs' Day, the day to commemorate the people killed in a revolt against the Hindu king in 1931, had been declared a national day soon after the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 and was observed by all sections cutting across political and ideological affiliations.

The function was held every year officially in the downtown locality of Srinagar in the premises of the martyrs' graveyard, with a guard of honor, and the chief minister and other political leaders laying wreath on graves.

But after the August 5 decision last year, when India revoked the special status of the region, it also removed July 13 from among the days of remembrance.