Daily Times

The whole Pakistani nation will mark October 27 as the ‘Black Day’ to express solidarity with the oppressed people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and highlight their decade’s long miseries at the hands of brutal Indian forces.

A number of activities including rallies and different events have been planned with special focus on shaking the conscience of international community especially the United Nations to play its due role in providing Kashmiris their legitimate right to self-determination. Banners, inscribed with the Black Day messages and pictures of prominent Kashmiri leaders, have been placed on key junctions and roads of the Federal Capital to exhibit greater unity with the people of Kashmir. The unending agonies of people of Kashmir started on October 27, 1947, when Pakistan’s born-enemy invaded and forcibly held most parts of the state having 87 per cent Muslim population. It was the sheer violation of the Independence Act and Partition Plan of the sub-continent by India that sowed a seed of dispute for the coming generations.

Since the Indian invasion, the people of occupied Kashmir did not take a sigh of relief even for a single moment as atrocities by the occupation forces kept increasing with each passing day to silence the voice of freedom.

After going through the 74-year physical and mental agony, now the Kashmiris are facing the worst type of repression at the hands of Modi-led fascist government, which has stripped the held territory of its special status, on August 5, 2019, by revoking Articles 370 and 35-A of Indian constitution to change its demographic apartheid.

Pakistanis and Kashmiris, living in any part of the world, would observe the day in a befitting manner, reminding the United Nations about their over a dozen resolutions passed by its Security Council in the favor people of IIOJK’s right to self-determination. The Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan has chalked out a comprehensive programme for observing the Black Day with a renewed spirit. All the provincial governments have also planned different activities to mark the day in a befitting manner. The print and electronic media would publish articles and air special programmes to highlight plight of Kashmiris in the occupied valley. Public gatherings, rallies, walks and protest demonstrations would be arranged at district and Tehsil level across the country including Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan, following the COVID SoPs. A photo exhibition will also be arranged to highlight human rights abuses, extra-judicial killings, disabilities of Kashmiris through pellet guns at the hands of Indian security forces. In federal and provincial capitals, documentaries would be played on large screens installed at key places in which Indian atrocities on innocent Kashmiris and the human tragedy unfolding in the territory to be depicted.

Pakistani missions abroad would also organize events and engage with Pakistani Diaspora, local parliamentarians, think-tanks and other relevant people to highlight significance of the day and remind the international community of its obligation to use its influence over India to resolve the decades’ old Kashmir issue. Ministry of Foreign Affairs through its missions abroad will also publish editorials and opinion pieces in foreign press to highlight the critical state prevailing in Occupied Kashmir. In Azad Kashmir, rallies, demonstrations and protest gatherings would be organized in all small and big cities of the state under the auspices of Kashmir Liberation Cell, Hurriyat and religious organizations. Meanwhile, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi Tuesday said that India was committing inhuman acts to suppress the public against its illegal occupation in Kashmir. He said, India failed to break Kashmiri people’s will who had been continuing their struggle for the past seven decades. Talking to APP regarding observance of black day on October 27, the prime minister said that in the presence of Prime Minister Imran Khan, there would be no bargaining on Kashmir and ruled out any formula for the partition of Kashmir. He said after the revocation of special status of IIOJK by India, the movement had gained momentum despite the use of brutal force by more than seven hundred thousand Indian soldiers and enforcement of all draconian laws and despite using all tactics and force was desperate to control the situation.