Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: President Mamnoon Hussain has urged the international community to wake up on the Kashmir issue and take notice of the gross human rights violations occurring in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOK). “It is the responsibility of the international community to fulfill its promise to the Kashmiris of granting them their right of self-determination through a fair and free plebiscite,” the President said in his message on the occasion of Kashmir Black Day, observed every year on October 27.

He said the UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir offered a peaceful, democratic, plausible, appealing and sensible solution to the Kashmir dispute. “We invite India once again to implement the relevant Security Council resolutions to end the Kashmir dispute forthwith for the sake of peace and prosperity of this whole region,” the President added.

He said the illegal occupation of IOK was the main reason more than 1.5 billion people in this region had been deprived of peace and prosperity for the last seven decades. The President said, “Every year, 27 October is observed as Kashmir Black Day throughout the world as on this ill-fated day in 1947, Indian forces landed in Srinagar to illegally occupy this heavenly land and start one of the most tragic chapters in human history.”

Since that Black Day, the universal principles of humanity, liberty, justice and sovereignty were being mocked by the Indian atrocities in IOK, he said, adding, “Four generations of Kashmiris have suffered countless brutalities since then.”

The President said the consistent pattern of Indian barbarities for the last 68 years had once again been repeated in the aftermath of the extra-judicial murder of the young icon of Kashmir freedom struggle, Mr Burhan Wani, on July 8, 2016. The whole Indian state machinery had done its utmost in committing the worst form of state terrorism on the defenseless masses of IOK who were demanding self-determination in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions, he added.

The President said the Indian forces, truly behaving in a manner of occupying forces, were using with impunity live ammunition and pellet guns against the civilians who were being butchered inhumanly. “Deliberate targeting of the eyes is highly despicable and this barbarous practice finds no example in civilized humanity. There is absolute lawlessness prevailing in Indian Occupied Kashmir. The anarchy is compounded by arbitrary arrests and detention of political leaders, human rights defenders, journalists and protesters,” he added.

The President said thousands of people were being held in custody without any trial. Leaders of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) continue to remain under detention, either in their houses or in police stations, he added. He further said that mobile phones, internet services, and Cable TV remain completely blocked. Due to prolonged curfews, the longest in the history of IOK, a humanitarian crisis has erupted, severely disrupting the lives and livelihoods of Kashmiri people, he added.

The President said, “The valiant people of IOK, through their unparalleled resilience, have comprehensively defeated Indian state-sponsored atrocities. They have become more determined to demand their right to self-determination. The people of Pakistan and the freedom-loving people of the entire world salute them for their courage in braving the Indian barbarism.”?