People rally for Kashmir cause

Denounce double standards of world community against Indian brutalities in IIOJK

ISLAMABAD/RAWALPINDI:

People in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi voiced wholehearted support to the Kashmiri peoples’ right to self-determination and denounced the brutalities of the forces in the Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

Various political, social, and trade organisations held rallies, seminars, and walks to highlight the misery of the people of IIOJK suffering under state-terrorism perpetrated by the Indian occupation forces. Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner Anwarul Haq leading a rally said the Pakistani nation stood with the cause for the liberation of Kashmir from the clutches of India and the holding of a plebiscite as per the UN resolutions. “The lockdown in Kashmir should be ended, the genocide of Kashmiris should be stopped,” he said while addressing a walk organised by the Joint Action Committee Schools and Colleges Rawalpindi District on the occasion of Kashmir Solidarity Day.

Addressing the gathering, the committee’s central chairman Malik Abrar Hussain, chairman Raja Ilyas, Member District Registration Authority Irfan Muzaffar Kayani, Ashraf Hiraj, Abdul Hameed, Munawar Shah maintained that it was necessary to hold such a walk to create awareness among the school children about the Kashmir issue.

Similarly, the Rawalpindi Arts Council and Islamic Students Federation held an All Pakistan Inter-Madrassa Speech Competition titled Kashmir Issue to sensitise the youth about the unfinished agenda of the formation of Pakistan. More than 70 students from madrassas across the country expressed their views on Kashmir Issue in English, Chinese, Arabic,Persian, and Urdu. Separately, the Rawalpindi and Islamabad chapters of the Jamaate-Islami held a Kashmir Solidarity rally in Sadiqabad. Deputy Ameer of JI Raza Ahmad Shah led the rally. He said the oppressed Kashmiris had been fighting for their rights for the past 73 years and had been laying down their lives for the cause of freedom.

For the last one-and-a-half year, India has imposed curfew in IIOJK, he said, adding that youths of Kashmir are being martyred and women raped while the UNO and the OIC remained silent spectators.

Lal Haveli rally Addressing a mammoth rally outside the Lal Haveli, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the people of IIOJK would get red rid of Indian atrocities soon and decide their fate by themselves. The sacrifices of Kashmiri people would bear fruit and a time would come when they would get their right to self-determination. For the last seven decades, Rashid said Kashmiris were struggling against the illegal Indian occupation on their region and were awaking the world’s conscience. There would be instability in the region if the fascist India was not stopped from committing atrocities against Kashmiris and other minorities, he added.

Meanwhile, Rescue 1122 personnel also organised a rally to show solidarity with Kashmiris. Hundreds of rescue workers participated in the rally ‘Double standards’ Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan asked the international community to shun their double standards on Kashmir and resolve the decades-long issue in line with the resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as were implemented in East Timor and South Sudan. Addressing a Kashmir Solidarity Day event in Taxila, he said Pakistan was incomplete without Kashmir and it was a legal and moral binding on the member countries of the UN to give people of IIOJK their legitimate right of self-determination as per the UN Security Council’s resolutions.

Federal capital Several rallies were held in the federal capital to mark the Kashmir Solidarity Day. Members of civil society held an awareness walk outside the parliament. The traders of Sector F-10 Markaz took out a rally in support of the Kashmir cause. The Muslim Institute organised a solidarity walk from China Chowk Blue Area to the Islamabad Press Club.