Srinagar : In occupied Kashmir, the All Parties Hurriyet Conference has said that Kashmir is an internationally-accepted dispute and deferment of its resolution has made it a bone of contention between Pakistan and India and a constant threat to peace in the South Asian region.
The APHC in a statement issued in Srinagar said it is because of the Kashmir dispute that India is investing a large amount of budget on arms and ammunitions, while the fact is that majority of Indians are forced to live a miserable life. The APHC condemned the Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s assertions that Jammu and Kashmir was always with India and would remain its part. The statement termed the remarks as egoistic and said that such rhetoric and parroting could not change the reality over the Kashmir dispute. The APHC said it is India that is creating impediments and hurdles in peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute, while Pakistan has always pleaded for its peaceful settlement.
Complete shutdown will be observed throughout the valley on 9th and 11th of February to commemorate the martyrdom anniversaries of prominent Kashmiri martyrs, Muhammad Afzal Guru and Muhammad Maqbool Butt. Call for the strike has been given by the joint resistance leadership, comprising Syed Ali Gilan, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik.
India had hanged Muhammad Maqbool Butt in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail on 11th February in 1984 and Muhammad Afzal Guru in the same jail on 9th February 2013. Dead bodies of both the leaders remain buried in the premises of the jail.
Meanwhile, Indian police, today, raided the office of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front in Kupwara, vandalized it and took away everything that was present in the office.
On the other hand, delegations of Tehreek-e-Hurriyet Jammu and Kashmir and APHC leaders visited Sopore and Kupwara to express solidarity with the families of martyred Azharuddin Khan and Sajjad Ahmad Lone.
The Jamaat-e-Islami of occupied Kashmir in a statement in Srinagar said that the arrest spree unleashed by Indian forces was creating a sense of fear and uneasiness among public particularly the parents in the Valley. It expressed concern over the unjust arrest of over two dozen youth, who came to a Baramulla police station to receive the dead body of martyr Azharud Din. He alongwith another youth was martyred by Indian troops in Sopore on Saturday.
APHC leader, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, who returned from a week-long visit to Jammu region, today, while addressing a meeting in Srinagar said that Village Defence Committees working under the patronage of Hindu extremist forces had become a growing threat to the Muslim of the region.