Kashmir under global spotlight

Digital campaigns launched in Birmingham; screens in Times Square display pro-Kashmir slogans

As India clamped a curfew in the illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, which has already been under lockdown since last August, an international digital campaign to highlight blatant human rights violations in IIOJK has been launched in major Western capitals.

August 5 – the day Narendra Modi’s India revoked the special constitutional status of IIOJK in 2019 – is being marked as Youm-e-Istehsal across Pakistan. And India imposed the curfew in IIOJK, fearing massive protests by Kashmiris.

As New York’s iconic Times Square lit with slogans of “Kashmir Siege Day”, “Kashmiri Lives Matter” and “Kashmiris Want Freedom”, the Tehreek-e-Kashmir, United Kingdom (TeK-UK) organised a digital campaign outside the Birmingham City Council House.

During the two-hour digital campaign, AJK President Sardar Masood Khan said India had been committing crimes against the humanity in IIOJK. “People in IIOJK are not ready to accept anything except the right to self-determination,” he said.

He added that world must fulfill its pledge with the Kashmiris which they had made by passing the United Nations resolutions to allow the Kashmiris to decide their political future.

President TeK-Europe Muhammad Ghalib said that Kashmiris were fighting against the Indian military and added that they would never compromise on their basic rights. He said the revocation of Articles 370 and 35A was the biggest mistake of India and it would not save the Hindu extremist country from disintegration.

“Kashmiris want their basic rights, which were granted by the UN. The world must come forward to implement the UN resolutions and give Kashmiris the chance to decide about their own future,” Ghalib added.

President TeK-UK Raja Fahim Kayani said that through the digital campaign the Kashmiris and Pakistanis settled in the UK wanted to express solidarity with the valiant people of IIOJK. Since August 5, 2019, he added, the whole IIOJK had been under a siege and nobody knew what was happening there.

Kayani said that during the lockdown Kashmiris suffered more than Rs76 billion losses as there had been no business with ban on every kind of trade and travel by the Indian government. “From August 5 to November 2019 more than 10,000 political activists were arrested under black law such as the Public Safety Act (PSA),” he added.

“India not only arrested the pro-freedom leaders but also detained pro-India politicians. This shows how India was behind the structured human rights violations. The world must take notice of such highhandedness of India to suppress the indigenous people’s movement,” Kayani said.

Kashmiris, he continued, had never accepted India’s forced and illegal occupation of their motherland. “The valiant people of Kashmir have yet again refused to accept this forced annexation and bifurcation of the territory on August 5,2019,” he said.

“This autocratic, undemocratic and unlawful move by the Indian government had only increased the level of public resentment against the occupation,” Kayani said, adding that amendments to the domicile law had also evoked strong reactions from the IIOJK people.

Elsewhere in the world, scores of Kashmir diaspora members and Pakistan expats in France held a demonstration near the iconic Eiffel Tower in capital Paris to protest on the eve of first anniversary of India’s illegal actions in IIOJK.

In the US, screens at New York’s iconic Times Square lit up with slogans denouncing India’s unilateral illegal action of scrapping the special constitutional status of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) nearly a year ago and calling for the freedom of Kashmiri people.

The messages said “Kashmir Siege Day”, “Kashmiri Lives Matter” and “Kashmiris Want Freedom” as a large number of people watched the billboards. The advertisement, which was paid by Ampackers.com, is part of a public outreach campaign in support of Kashmiri people’s struggle for self-determination.

Pakistan’s ambassador to US Asad Khan shared footage of the scenes on his Twitter handle. “Scenes at Times Square as Kashmiris mark a full year of their imprisonment on August 5. That is one full year of forced disappearances, torture, and a siege that has been intensified on the pretext of Covid-19. #LetKashmirSpeak #OneYearSiege”, the caption of the post read.

IIOJK under curfew

In the IIOJK, Indian authorities on Tuesday imposed a two-day curfew. According to Kashmir Media Service, Indian occupation troops had been deployed in strength in view of the one-year anniversary of the revocation of Kashmir's special status by the fascist Modi government last year.

The occupation authorities had sealed most of the roads and marketplaces and announcements were being made on loudspeakers, wherein people were asked to stay indoors. No public movement was being allowed.

Since Monday night, additional police and paramilitary personnel were deployed in strength across the illegally-occupied region. A police official told Anadolu Agency that barricades had been set up at hundreds of places with concertina wires.

(WITH INPUT FROM AGENCIES)