The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has deplored that Indian troops and police have intensified the atrocities against the defenseless people of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) as the so-called Republic Day of India (January 26) is approaching. According to Kashmir Media Service, the APHC in a statement in Srinagar said the checking of vehicles, frisking of commuters and pedestrians and house raids by Indian army, paramilitary and police personnel have witnessed an alarming increase as India’s Republic Day is drawing nearer. It said that the Indian forces’ personnel were targeting not only the Kashmiri youth but also the families during house raids in the so-called cordon and search operations. The APHC said that the Narendra Modi-led Indian government was using brutal tactics to further its nefarious Hindutva agenda in the territory and weaken the spirit of Kashmiris for their righteous demand of right to self-determination. The statement urged the international community to play its role in ending the ongoing Indian atrocities on the unarmed Kashmiris and to resolve the Kashmir dispute in accordance with their aspirations and the UN resolutions. Meanwhile, APHC leader, Abdul Samad Ingilabi, in a statement issued in Srinagar said India cannot continue its illegal hold over IIOJK for a long time through its military might. He said, “Kashmiris are demanding settlement of the Kashmir dispute according to the UN resolutions.” He expressed concern over the grave human rights violations by Indian troops in the occupied territory. He appealed to the international community to play its role in granting the Kashmiris their inalienable right to self-determination. National Front: Jammu Kashmir National Front, while urging Kashmiri masses to observe India’s Republic Day as Black Day, has said that the fascist country that has usurped the fundamental rights of the people of Indian illegally Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) has no justification whatsoever to celebrate Republic Day. Denouncing India’s illegal and forcible occupation of Jammu and Kashmir, Front spokesman Haseeb Wani 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,” according to a press release issued here. “Notwithstanding their commitments to 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,” he said, adding that it was incumbent upon the international community to take serious notice of the illegal occupation of Kashmir by India and its belligerent occupation of Kashmir, which he said has been a major cause and consequence of unrest in the region. Reiterating his party’s full support for the APHC call for a strike on January 26, the spokesman appealed to the Kashmiri masses 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 massacre of innocent civilians at Handwara by the Indian army, he said that the massacre of 21 unarmed protesters by the Border Security Force of India in north Kashmir’s Handwara town on January 25, 1990, was the most shocking example of Indian state terrorism.