Daily Times

General Secretary of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), Moulvi Bashir Ahmad Irfani, has said that Kashmiris would observe August 5 as a ‘Black Day’ in IIoJ&K to send a clear message to India to show undeterred commitment to the right of self-determination. According to Kashmir Media Service, he said that New Delhi is an illegal occupier in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir territory and Kashmiris reject its illegitimate occupation of their homeland. Moulvi Bashir in a statement issued in Srinagar said that ‘August 5 is the blackest chapter in the history of Jammu and Kashmir’. It is a very painful and gruesome day when Modi government humiliated the entire humanity by snatching all the basic human, political, social, and religious rights of Kashmiris.

He said that since August 5, 2019, the Modi government committed such barbaric atrocities on innocent Kashmiris that are unprecedented in history. Irfani said that the worst crackdown on the media in the occupied territory is going on, and no one is allowed to report the atrocities of the Indian army. Anyone who dares to report is imprisoned under black laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. He said the Modi government is using notorious agencies NIA and SIA to terrorize Kashmiris, confiscate their lands and properties, and demolish houses. At the same time, a large number of Kashmiris have been dismissed from government jobs, adding that the Modi government is changing the Muslim majority status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir. He appealed to the entire Kashmiri people to observe 5th August as Black Day to make it clear to India that they will not give up the struggle for the inalienable right to self-determination. Hurriyat organizations including Tehreek-e-Istehkam Jammu and Kashmir, Muslim Conference, Jammu and Kashmir Political Resistance Movement, Shabab Muslimeen and Al Falah Party in their statements in Srinagar said that August 5 is a grim reminder of the day when India abolished the special status of the occupied territory.