Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control and across the world observed the Right to Self-Determination Day on Sunday with renewed pledge to continue their freedom struggle till it reaches its ultimate goal. It was on January 5 in 1949 when the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution supporting the Kashmiris’ right to decide their future by themselves through UN-sponsored plebiscite. The day was marked by various activities including rallies, seminars and conferences to remind the UN that it must implement its resolutions to settle the Kashmir dispute. This year, the day was observed when occupied Kashmir was under continued military siege for the 154th consecutive day. Over in occupied Kashmir, All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Chairman Syed Ali Geelani said that despite unprecedented oppression by the Indian government, Kashmiris were sacrificing their lives to end the decades-long illegal hold of the territory by India. Geelani in a statement issued in Srinagar, while commenting on the resolution passed on January 5, 1949 regarding the Kashmiri people’s right to choose their fate, said that Kashmiris observed the Right to Self-Determination Day on both sides of the Line of Control and across the world as a reminder to the United Nations of its commitment to provide Kashmiris their basic right. He said that even after more than seven decades, the Jan 5 resolution passed in the UN Security Council in 1949 provided a peaceful and durable solution to the long-pending Kashmir dispute. He said that India could not deny the legitimacy and authenticity of the UN resolutions that formed the basis of the Kashmir dispute and guaranteed its peaceful settlement as per the Kashmiris’ aspirations. He regretted that the UN had failed to implement its own resolutions, urging the international community to play its role in ensuring basic rights, including the right to self-determination to the oppressed Kashmiris. Geelani also paid rich tributes to the martyrs and victims of Sopore massacre. Pertinently, 57 innocent Kashmiris were martyred and over 400 structures, including houses and shops, were set ablaze by Indian troops on January 6, 1993 in Sopore town. He reminded the international human rights organisations to probe the Sopore massacre and other gross human rights violations by Indian troops in occupied Kashmir. He said that India continued to unleash state terrorism and violate basic human rights of the innocent Kashmiris because of the criminal silence being maintained by the global community, including the UN, over New Delhi’s crimes against the people of Kashmir. The APHC chairman urged the international human rights organisations to stand up for the subjugated people of occupied Kashmir at a time when Indian regime led by Narendra Modi was making every effort to change the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir and bring about a demographic change through ethnic cleansing of Muslims and later settling non-Kashmiris there. He said tha tNew Delhi’s August 5, 2019 illegal and unilateral actions stood witness to this. On the illegal detention of thousands of Kashmiris languishing in jails of India, he said that Indian authorities continued to abuse and violate rights of the Kashmiri political prisoners by placing them in the worst living conditions inside jails. Geelani lamented that those prisoners were even deprived of basic rights like medical care and judicial help. This mistreatment and abuse of the Kashmiri prisoners is part of India’s aggressive and repressive policy against the Kashmiris, he added. Meanwhile, the forum led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, expressing concern over the continuing human rights violations in occupied Kashmir, particularly since August 5, 2019, said that the Kashmiri people had been deprived of all basic rights at gunpoint. The Hurriyat forum in a statement issued in Srinagar appealed to the international community to take serious notice of the deteriorating situation in the occupied territory and take measures to prevent India from continuing policies of suppression against the Kashmiri people so that people of Kashmir could be given the right to live with honour and dignity. The forum regretted the Indian authorities’ act of shutting Srinagar’s historical Jamia Masjid for the continued 19 Fridays and heavy deployment of forces around the mosque for the past three consecutive Fridays to virtually restrict the movement of the worshippers coming to offer prayers. It said the worshippers are now being monitored through drone cameras, which is highly shameful. While strongly reacting to the continued detentions and house arrests of hundreds of Hurriyat leaders and activists, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, youth, civil society members, traders and lawyers in jails in and outside the territory for the past five months, the forum said that the Kashmiri leadership and people cannot be forced to change their principled stand on the Kashmir dispute through such nefarious tactics.