Jammu Martyrs Day marked with renewed pledge in AJK

Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control observed the Jammu Martyrs anniversary on Saturday to commemorate the supreme sacrifices of the lives given by over 250,000 Muslim residents of Jammu city in 1947 while migrating to Pakistan.

The day is observed every year to remember the supreme sacrifices of those who were mercilessly slaughtered by Hindu extremists, including the Indian occupying forces and the Dogra military troops while they were migrating to Pakistan near the Jammu–Sialkot working boundary.

According to the independent historians and observers, at least 600,000 Muslims in the Jammu region were assassinated in the first week of November 1947 by extremist Hindus and Sikhs with the backing of the despotic Dogra ruler.

The day was observed by every Kashmiri with the renewal pledge to continue the struggle for freedom of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

In Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), seminars and symposiums were held to pay glorious tributes to the Jammu martyrs. The day was marked with a mammoth ceremony hosted at the town hall in Mirpur under the auspices of the Jammu and Kashmir Freedom Movement and Jammu and Kashmir Milli Forum with the AJK Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan Niazi presiding as chief guest.

Eminent speakers said that the best way to pay tributes to the martyrs of Jammu is to follow in their footsteps with a renewal of the pledge to continue the struggle for freedom.

Lauding complete unity and solidarity among all the political parties of AJK on one-point agenda of freedom, speakers underlined that the Kashmiris can perform an effective and result-oriented role for the settlement of the much-delayed Kashmir issue and they should be granted an opportunity to perform the national responsibility to this direction.

Speakers called upon the international community to ensure the early peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue, which involves the right to self-determination of about 20 million Kashmiris.

They urged upon the world community and the international organisations to take immediate notice of the continued Indian state terrorism unleashed against the innocent, freedom-loving people in IIOJK for their “offence” of raising their voice for liberation of the motherland from the Indian yoke and for the achievement of their right of self-determination.

The participants offered fateha for raising the status of the departed souls of the martyrs and the early success of the freedom struggle of Jammu and Kashmir for the freedom of the motherland from Indian subjugation.

Earlier, the day dawned with special prayers at Fajr in all the prominent mosques for the early liberation of occupied Jammu and Kashmir from the Indian yoke through the success of the Kashmir freedom movement, progress, prosperity and stability of Pakistan and AJK.