Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: India’s independence day was observed as ‘black day’ in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Tuesday. Public meetings and protest rallies were held in almost all cities and towns.

The main event of the day was a public rally held in Muzaffarabad led by the Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan. Members of the AJK’s legislative assembly and leaders of various political parties were also present. The participants handed over a memorandum to the United Nations Observers in Muzaffarabad, demanding implementation of the UN’s resolution on Kashmir passed in 1948. The memo also demanded that the UN secretary general should take serious note of gross human rights violations and atrocities being committed by Indian forces in the valley and send a special fact-finding mission to assess the situation.

Earlier, Raja Farooq Haider Khan said that the Indian government was trying to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir from its constitution which was against international laws and UN resolutions. He said such attempts would be foiled by Kashmiri leadership and vowed to convince foreign affairs ministry to take up the issue in UN’s security council. “Kashmiri people have made sacrifices for their right to self-determination and would never bow before Indian military’s atrocities,” Haider said.

Meanwhile, curfews and other restrictions were imposed across Indian-held Kashmir, particularly in Srinagar, where the main function of India’s Independence Day was to be held. Bakshi Stadium, the main venue for the day celebrations, was sealed prior to the beginning of celebrations, Kashmir Media Service reported.

Indian Army and paramilitary personnel were deployed after every two kilometres on Srinagar-Jammu highway stretch from Sonwar to Bijbehera. Similar arrangements are in place on Srinagar-Baramulla highway stretch.

Meanwhile, the joint resistance leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik in a statement condemned imposition of curfew in Srinagar and other areas. “The curfew-like restrictions, bans, blockades and curbs are the standard response by India and its stooges to peaceful protests,” the leaders said.

FO: Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said that Pakistan would continue to highlight grave human rights violations by Indian forces in Occupied Kashmir at all international forums.

In his tweets, he strongly condemned continuous killing of innocent Kashmiris with impunity. He said continuous bloodshed of Kashmiris, illegal detention, and threat to lives of Kashmiri leaders violate UN Charter, international conventions and right to life. He spokesman reaffirmed Pakistan’s unflinching support to Kashmiris in their just struggle for self-determination.

Published in Daily Times, August 16^th 2017.