Kashmiris observe ‘Black Day’ as Modi visits Jammu

A complete shutdown was observed in IIOJK; mass protests held in AJK, UK

MUZAFFARABAD/ ISLAMABAD/LONDON:

Kashmiris living on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) as well as around the globe observed Sunday as a Black Day as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi toured Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) for the first time since abrogating the special status of the region on August 5, 2019.

A complete shutdown was observed in IIOJK on the call of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), the Kashmir Media Service said. Protests were also held in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), while the Kashmiris and their allies held demonstrations in the UK against the visit of the “fascist Indian ruler”.

The Indian occupation authorities deployed troops and police in strength across the IIOJK, particularly in the Jammu region, in the name of security measures ahead of Modi’s visit. The police seized scores of bikes from different areas of Srinagar as part of stepped-up security.

Modi made his first visit to IIOJK since August 5, 2019 when India annexed the region after putting millions of Kashmiris under a military lockdown. Modi’s Hindu nationalist government also abrogated the constitutional clauses, which gave the region a “special status”.

The observance of Black Day was also aimed at registering a protest against continuous Indian occupation and at a time when the Kashmir freedom struggle had reached the climax while the mass resentment constantly reverberated in the blood-soaked streets of IIOJK.

Addressing a mammoth Black Day rally in Miprur, AJK, the protesters said that India had turned the occupied state into the largest prison on the earth for last more than two years and eight months through a complete communication and information blockade.

Read AJK PM says Modi’s IIOJK visit equivalent to rubbing salt on Kashmiris’ wounds

The protest was organised by the National Events Organizing Committee (NEOC), a joint forum of various public representative organisations of the civil society. It was addressed by NEOC Chairman Amjad Iqbal, Yasir Riaz, Muneer Qureshi, Altaf Hamid, Aslam Malik, Imtiaz Ahmed and others.

Lambasting the Modi government, they described its Hindutva ideology as a threat to regional peace, urging the United Nations to perform its due responsibilities for resolving the much-delayed Kashmir issue in line with the UN resolutions.

In Islamabad, Peace and Culture Organisation Chairperson Mushaal Mullick said in a statement that fascist Modi had already turned IIOJK into a killing field, while his visit was nothing but a cruel joke with the Kashmiri people and it would add fuel to the fire.

Mullick, wife of Yasin Malik, the illegally detained chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, said that Modi’s visit was tantamount to rubbing salt on the wounds of Kashmiris who had been living the life under the shadow of guns for the last seven decades.

She warned that the Hindu supremacist regime could not buy the loyalty of the Kashmiri people with announcing some development projects, adding that the people were well aware of Modi’s nefarious designs and they could not be misguided.

Another protest demonstration was held under the aegis of the APHC-AJK Chapter, outside the Indian High Commission in the federal capital, which was attended by Kashmiri leaders, hailing from both sides of the LoC.

AJK Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan said that the purpose of Modi’s visit was to mislead the international community and deflect its attention away from the real issue – human rights violations. He added that the visit would turn out to be a failed attempt to raise the morale of Indian forces.

Terming India as a usurper, he said, the Indian prime minister had no moral justification whatsoever to visit the region that continued to bleed under its occupation for the past seven decades. “Yet, the Kashmiris are writing a new history of resistance and bravery,” he added.

In the UK, a large protest was held outside the Indian Consulate in Birmingham. Raising anti-India and pro-Kashmir freedom slogans, the protest organisers urged the British government to put Indian diplomats in the UK on notice for placing IIOJK under a military lockdown.

Read Pakistan denounces extra-judicial killing of four more Kashmiris

They said that the Kashmiris rejected Modi’s IIOJK visit when innocent, unarmed Kashmiris had been jailed in the world’s biggest illegal open-air prison. “Kashmiris will never be cowed down by Indian actions,” Fahim Kayani, president of the Tehreek-e-Kashmir (TeK) UK, said.

Kayani said that IIOJK was under illegal control of India as it deployed one million soldiers in the UN-designated disputed territory, adding that Modi’s visit was held under the gun to ensure graveyard silence among the Kashmiris.

“The visit of Modi, whose hands are soaked in the blood of innocents, is aimed at hoodwinking the international community that everything is honky dory in IIOJK. It is the responsibility of the British government as well as the international community to hold India accountable for its crimes against humanity.”

Speaking on the occasion, TeK-Europe President Muhammad Ghalib said that the free pass that India had been given by the Western world was only exposing hypocrisy of these capitals, which boasted of upholding human rights.

Inamul Haq, a Kashmiri activist, said that thousands of Kashmiris had been killed, jailed, maimed and injured but India could not suppress the freedom struggle of Kashmiris. The demonstrators also condemned the cold-blooded murder of Shabir Ahmad Mir, a resident of Srinagar.

Later, in a joint statement, Chaudhry Shanwaz, president of APKCC and Inamul Haq, the TeK secretary general Birmingham, said: “By killing our future generation, India is adamant on changing the Muslim-majority into non-Muslim but Kashmiris will never allow it.”

The Foreign Office rejected Indian prime minister’s staged visit to IIOJK as yet another ploy to project fake ‘normalcy’ in the occupied territory. It strongly condemned the laying of foundation stones for the construction of the Rattle and Kwar Hydroelectric Projects (HEP) on the Chenab River.

“It is not surprising, therefore, that while the Indian prime minister was on his brief visit to Jammu under a heavy security cover, the people of IIOJK were observing a Black Day as an expression of their rejection of India’s mischief and illegal policies,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.

“The construction of Rattle hydroelectric plant, as designed by India, has been disputed by Pakistan, and for Kwar Hydroelectric Plant, India has so far not fulfilled its Treaty obligation of sharing information with Pakistan,” the statement added.

“Pakistan views such laying of foundation stones of the two projects by the Indian prime minister as direct contravention of the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 and calls upon India to fulfil its obligations under the IWT and refrain from taking any such steps which are detrimental to the IWT framework.”

The Foreign Office once again called upon the international community to play its role in ensuring a just and peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people for durable peace and stability in South Asia.

In a statement, Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad reiterated Pakistan's call for investigation into extrajudicial killings in IIOJK by a commission of inquiry recommended by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in its Kashmir reports of 2018 and 2019.

The spokesperson strongly condemned the unabated killing spree being perpetrated by the Indian occupation forces in which three more Kashmiri youths were martyred in Baramullah district during the last two days.

 

(WITH INPUT FROM APP)