Muzaffarabad: (Parliament Times) President Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan, Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan and Minister for Information, Tourism and Information Technology Mushtaq Minhas have said that Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control (LOC) and the world over would observe India’s Republic Day on January 26, as Black Day to convey global community that India was not a true democratic country as it had denied the people of Kashmir their inalienable right to self-determination.
In their separate messages the trio said, “Jammu Kashmir is a long-standing issue, which originated when Indian forces forcibly occupied a vast area of the state on October 27, 1947 in collaboration with then Kashmiri ruler – the Maharaja. It is the darkest day in the history as Kashmiris were sold to India regardless of the Indian Independence Act and the Partition Plan”.
“When Pakistan and India became independent on August 1947, it was generally assumed that Jammu Kashmir, as an adjoining state with a predominantly Muslim population, would accede to Pakistan”, they said adding that Kashmiris and their supporters commemorate the day every year as a Black Day
Sardar Masood Khan while appealing to the people of Jammu and Kashmir to observe January 26 as ‘black day’, said that since 1947, Indian troopers have martyred thousands of Kashmiri people who demanded right to self-determination and the process is going on. India he said has been using all the tactics to suppress the freedom movement in Kashmir. “It has been resorting to extra-custodial killings and random arrests of innocent youth,” AJ&K President said. He said that Kashmiris were awaiting a plebiscite under the United Nations to decide their future by themselves.
“It is notable that since 1947, in order to maintain its illegal control, India has continued its repressive regime in the Occupied Kashmir through various machinations and State-sponsored terrorism. Various forms of state terrorism have been part of a deliberate campaign by the Indian army and paramilitary forces against Muslim Kashmiris, especially since 1989. It has been manifested in brutal tactics like crackdowns, curfews, illegal detentions, massacre, targeted killings, sieges, burning the houses, torture, disappearances, rape, breaking the legs, molestation of Muslim women and killing of persons through fake encounter. In fact, Indian forces have employed various draconian laws like the Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act, and the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act and Public Safety Act in killing the Kashmiri people, and for the arbitrarily arrest of any individual for an indefinite period”, he said.
Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan in his message said, “I appeal to my nation to observe Jan 26 as Black Day so that a message will go across globe that people in Kashmir resent Indian rule”. He said that people should also stage protest to expose the hollowness of Indian democracy. “India has no justification in celebrating its Republic Day in Kashmir when it has terrorized the people and abused basic human rights,” the premier said adding that the settlement of non-Kashmiris in the disputed territory was a move to hinder the just solution of the Kashmir dispute.
Minister for Information Mushtaq Minhas said that India has been using all tactics to suppress the Kashmir Freedom Struggle that is based on the genuine sentiments of people of Kashmir. He said India also neglects the fact that Kashmir remains a nuclear flashpoint between Pakistan and India. Although Indian Constitution declares India to be a secular and democratic state, yet its subsequent regimes have broken all the records by continuing undemocratic injustices in relation to the Kashmiris. He said Nevertheless, by exposing the myth of Indian claim of the largest democracy and double standard of the US-led Western countries over the Indian injustices, Kashmiris, living on both sides of the LoC observe “Black Day” on January 26 to protest against the Indian illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir.
