Experts on Thursday stressed the need to keep treading the path of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) iconic leader Syed Ali Gilani till freedom from India is achieved. Talking to APP in connection with the second martyrdom day of Kashmiri iconic leader, Syed Ali Gilani, the experts said that the rising human rights violations and arrests of political leadership in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir must be highlighted at international forums like the United Nations (UN), European Union (EU) and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). They stressed the need to exert pressure on Indian government to stop excessive use of force to crush the indigenous ongoing political movement in the occupied valley. It is worth mentioning here that the first day of September of year 2023 is significant for the fact that it is not just the second death anniversary, but also the second year in the history of Kashmir freedom struggle without Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a name that needs no introduction. Talking to APP, Lt. Gen. (R) Abdul Qayyum highlighted the resolve of Kashmiris in their quest for freedom, observing a dichotomy in the global discourse, where human rights rhetoric sometimes takes a back seat to self-interest. Lt. Gen. Qayyum noted that Pakistan is grappling with a hybrid war. He expressed confidence in the Pakistan Army’s resilience against adversaries and highlighted attempts of enemies to tarnish its image through false propaganda. Kashmiris’ resistance against Indian illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir has been going on for the last over seven decades. Many prominent Hurriyat leaders have played an important role in carrying forward this movement, he added. Lt. Gen. Ashraf Saleem, while talking to APP expressed his concerns about India’s attempts to control Pakistan’s water resources, adding another layer of complexity to the Kashmir issue. Undoubtedly, veteran leader Syed Ali Gilani is the tallest personality in the resistance history of Jammu and Kashmir and the icon of Kashmir freedom movement, he said adding that Gilani embraced martyrdom on 01 September 2021 in Indian police custody at his residence in Srinagar, where he was kept under continued house detention by the Indian authorities for over a decade. Syed Ali Gilani was an embodiment of honesty, unwavering resoluteness and struggle, with matchless passion, ideology, and vision about Kashmir, he said. Dr Fakharul Haq Noori, a noted professor and educationist said that Syed Ali Gilani not only presented the cause of Kashmir with great clarity but also united all the Kashmiri people for that one cherished goal – the freedom of Kashmir and the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination – for which he had to pay a huge price. The veteran leader is quite rightly regarded as the symbol of valour, courage and resistance against the Indian oppression, Noori said. Throughout his life, he advocated resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the Kashmiris’ aspirations to be ascertained through the democratic process of holding a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir under the supervision of the United Nations as promised in the Security Council resolutions, he said. Mushaal Hussein Mullick, the wife of Kashmir leader Yasin Malik and special assistant to prime minister for human rights and women empowerment told APP that Syed Ali Gilani exhibited the best traits of a real leader by maintaining his principled position on the Kashmir dispute despite being subjected to every kind of political vengeance. He spent several years in various jails for opposing the Indian illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir and demanding freedom, enduring physical and mental torture during his imprisonment, she said. To a query Mushal said that Indian rulers were even scared of his dead body. It is evident from the brutal action of the Indian forces’ personnel, who snatched away his body from his family and forcibly buried him in the darkness of the night in a local graveyard at Hyderpora, about 300 metres away from his home. This brutal action deprived the bereaved family from fulfilling the veteran leader’s will of burying him at the Martyrs’ Graveyard at Eidgah in Srinagar, she lamented. The Narendra Modi-led Indian government’s illegal and unconstitutional unilateral actions of August 05, 2019 and subsequent measures showed that how visionary leader Syed Ali Gilani was, she stressed. In his speeches several years ago, Syed Ali Gilani had warned about the demographic engineering and settler colonial agenda of the Indian government through the land grab and construction of colonies for Indian soldiers and Kashmiri Pandits, delimitation of Assembly constituencies, and granting of citizenship and voting rights to the Indian citizens, she informed. The Modi regime as part of this policy is forcibly bringing the Indian citizens and permanently settling them in IIOJK to convert the Muslim majority in the territory into a minority. The Hindutva forces, involved in the massacre of Muslims in Jammu in 1947 enjoying full support of the Modi government, are now openly targeting the Muslims in the Kashmir Valley – the apprehension articulated by the veteran leader long ago, she added. The battle of Syed Ali Gilani would be remembered in history as a major example of resistance against the Indian illegal rule in IIOJK. His lifelong and unwavering struggle to free his homeland will continue to inspire the coming generation of Kashmir and the oppressed people all over the world in the future.