Daily Times

The international community must exert pressure on the Indian government to start the pending plebiscite process in the Indian Illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIoJK) to provide a peaceful life to the Kashmiri people.

This was stated by a senior Hurriyat leader, Altaf Ahmad Bhat while talking to APP on Tuesday in connection with Youm-i-Istehsal, to be marked on August 05.

The way the international community categorically rejected the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A by the Indian authorities and came out from their houses to extend their support for the Kashmiri people reflects their invincible support for the Kashmir cause.

Altaf Bhat said that 2019’s move of scrapping the special status of IIoJK was aimed at suppressing Kashmiri’s struggle for independence that continued for the last 74 years and reached the turning point now however the people of IIoJK strongly rejected the annexation or division of the region.

“Not only those Kashmiris who were the part of the struggle against Indian atrocities and demanding the right to self-determination and referendum since the last many years opposed this move but also those who were part of Indian politics including Omer Abdullah, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Naghma Mufti, and Sajjad Mohan and many others didn’t accept this decision”, he observed. “Abrogation of Article 370 and 35A on August 05, 2019, was not an amendment but an attack on our statehood while the curfew or crackdown in IIoJK was actually economic breakdown which was planned by the Modi government to break the will of Kashmiris-will of freedom and plebiscite but they met a huge failure in terms of loss of billions of US dollars and natural resources.” Altaf Bhat said that the Indian government miserably failed in portraying the wrong picture of the IIoJK before the world through managing international delegations visits to the IIoJK during the crackdown rather exposed their own agendas.

The Hurriyat leader said that the Kashmiri people will not surrender their longstanding struggle until or unless they get their basic right to self-determination. He also urged the Pakistani government to continue extending its unflinching support to the Kashmiri masses by standing for their cause of self-determination and realizing the international community to exert pressure on Indian authorities to stop gross violation of human rights in IIoJK.