Kashmir Solidarity Day: Rallies demand ‘forceful diplomacy’ for Kashmir

Speakers highlight Indian actions in Jammu and Kashmir.

ISLAMABAD: Political and religious organisations took out rallies in the capital to mark Kashmir Solidarity Day on Thursday.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) supporters marched from Zero Point to Aabpara Market while Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) held their own rally in G-9 Markaz.

JI Naib Ameer Mian Muhammad Aslam, addressing the participants, asked the government to raise the Kashmir issue at the United Nations and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) instead of just observing a solidarity day every year.

“Historically, geographically and culturally, Kashmir is a part of Pakistan,” he said.

Aslam criticised the international community for its ‘double standard’ on Kashmir, and said that peace in South Asia hinged on a solution to the Kashmir dispute, according to the resolutions of the UN Security Council.

He said the United States and the international community were overlooking “Indian terrorism in Kashmir”.

The participants carried banners and hoardings calling for freedom and chanted slogans against “the Indian occupation of Jammu and Kashmir”.

In a separate rally, hundreds of JuD supporters marched from Zero Point to Aabpara Market where Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki, Lt. Gen (retd) Hameed Gul and others addressed the participants.

Makki said that Kashmir was a disputed territory and an independence plebiscite was the right of Kashmiris. He said if India wants to settle the issue, it should withdraw its forces from the territory and come to the negotiating table.

Speaking on the JuD stage, General Gul said that India was not ready to negotiate on Kashmir and added that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party was working on an agenda of ‘Akhand Bharat’.

“Kashmir could be liberated soon if the passion for jihad is there,” said the former ISI chief.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf local leader Amir Mughal said Kashmir was Pakistan’s jugular vein. “We stand with Kashmiris in their struggle for right to self-determination,” he said.

Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat held a seminar on the Kashmir issue at their office in G-9, which was addressed by party chief Allama Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi. He said peace in the region was impossible with a solution to the Kashmir issue. The ASWJ chief said he was ready to offer hundreds of thousands of party workers to “retake the occupied territory”.

He said negotiations with India would be meaningless without a solution to the dispute. He also urged the UN to take note of Indian brutalities in the territory.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6^th, 2015.