Daily Times

DHAKA: People marched in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Friday demanding an end to the curfew-like situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).

The group – called Kashmir Solidarity Council Bangladesh (KSCB) – gathered in Maghbazar neighborhood of the city and took out a procession following the Friday prayer.

Demanding restoration of the decades-old special constitutional status for the people of IOK, they called on the Indian government to stop the persecution of the Muslim-majority region.

“Without holding a referendum as recommended by the resolution of the United Nations, peace cannot be established in Kashmir,” Mufti Habibur Rahman, KSCB central leader, said at the rally.

Terming the Kashmir crisis as an international issue, he added that India had changed its stance on the referendum for the fear of losing the vote.

“They [India] are now applying the path of tyranny against Kashmiri people to deprive them from their legitimate rights”.

From 1954 until Aug. 5, 2019, IOK had special status under the provision of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. The provisions also protected the region’s citizenship law, which barred outsiders from settling in and owning land in the territory.

The Hindu nationalist BJP government of India suddenly withdrew this special provision last August, claiming it was hindering development in the region.

Expressing skepticism to the claim, Rahman added: “In the last seven decades India has killed thousands of Muslims in the occupied valley and raped a number of women.”

Addressing the rally, some other Islamic leaders also urged the Muslim world to unitedly work to force India to grant the right to self-determination to the people of Kashmir, to let them decide their own fate.