Jailed APHC leader urges Kashmiris to observe Jan 26 as Black Day

Senior All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leader Nayeem Ahmed Khan has said that a fascist country usurping the fundamental rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir has no justification to celebrate Indian Republic Day.

In his message on Tuesday from Tihar jail, the incarcerated Hurriyat leader, while denouncing India’s illegal and forcible occupation of Jammu and Kashmir, said, "Since the past several decades, Indian occupation forces have been grossly involved in trampling down the fundamental political and democratic rights of the Kashmiri people."

“Notwithstanding their commitments of holding a free, fair, and impartial plebiscite to let the people of Jammu and Kashmir decide their political fate, the Indian rulers have chosen a violent path to suppress by dint of force the aspirations of Kashmiri people,” Khan said. 

He said that it was incumbent upon the international community to take serious notice of the illegal occupation of Kashmir by India. He said that this belligerent occupation has been major cause and consequence of unrest in the region.

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Reiterating his party’s full support to the APHC's call for a strike on January 26, Nayeem appealed to the masses in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) to observe a complete strike on the day to convey to the world that India’s illegal occupation was not acceptable to them.

Recalling the dreadful genocide of innocent civilians at Handwara by the Indian army, he said the massacre of 21 unarmed protesters by the Indian Border Security Force in Handwara town on January 25,1990 was the most horrifying example of Indian state terrorism.

Demanding an independent probe into the incident to bring to justice the perpetrators, he regrettably noted that those involved in this beastly act were let off scot-free.