All set to observe Kashmir Solidarity Day today

ISLAMABAD: The whole nation will observe the Kashmir Solidarity Day in a befitting manner today (Tuesday), renewing the pledge to continue extending all possible support to the people of Indian Held Kashmir (IHK) who are struggling for more than seven decades to get their legitimate right to self-determination.

This year, the day is being observed in Pakistan and other parts of the world at a time when Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir have reached a new level of oppression to crush the indigenous freedom movement against the subjugating forces. The government has planned a number of activities to mark the day and expose the massive human rights violations being committed by brutal Indian forces to suppress the indigenous freedom movement of the people of Kashmir.

It will be a public holiday on February 5 in Pakistan and across the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). One-minute silence will be observed at 10am to pay tribute to the Shuhada of Kashmir, who sacrificed their lives to get their inalienable right of self-determination in line with the resolutions passed by the Security Council of United Nations.

Following this, a human chain will be formed at the D Chowk, Islamabad, with active participation of people from all walks of life, especially students and officials of the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan Council.

Besides, human chains will be formed at all connecting points of Pakistan and the AJK like Kohala, Holar, Azad Pattan and Mirpur, in which representatives of all provincial governments would participate.

State run TV and radio will broadcast different programmes on the Kashmir Solidarity Day. A Kashmir festival in connection with the Kashmir Solidarity Day has been planned at the Lok Virsa, Islamabad; Kashmir artists and singers will participate in this festival.

Minister for Kashmir Affairs Ali Amin Gandapur has urged all political parties to participate in the human-chain formations to express solidarity with their Kashmiri brethren. President Arif Alvi will especially visit Muzaffarabad to express solidarity with the people of Kashmir. He will perform the ground-breaking of Yadgar-i-Shuhada in Muzaffarabad and will address the AJK Legislative Assembly.

A seminar will be held at the President House here in which experts would share their views on the Kashmir dispute and human rights violations in IHK.

Rallies, public meetings, and seminars will be held across the country, including Azad Kashmir, to draw attention of the world community towards the grave human rights violations and brutalities against innocent Kashmiris by the Indian security forces.

Events have also been organised in London to effectively project the humanitarian aspects of the lingering Kashmir dispute at the world level. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is in the British capital to attend an international conference on Kashmir being held at the British Parliament on Tuesday. The foreign minister will also meet British members of the parliament and other senior government officials and discuss with them matters of bilateral interest besides highlighting Pakistan’s principled stand on Kashmir.

Television channels will broadcast special documentaries and newspapers will publish special editions to highlight the miseries of the people of occupied Kashmir, awakening the conscience of international community to play its due role in giving the Kashmiris their right to self-determination.

President Dr Arif Alvi has said the indifference of the international community towards grave human rights atrocities by India raises doubts in the minds of Kashmiris, hinting at double standards where every atrocity goes unpunished and every human rights violation uncondemned.

“It reduces the United Nations Human Rights charter to mere verbal rhetoric,” the president, in a message on the Kashmir Solidarity Day being commemorated today (February 5), said.

The president said February 5 offered an opportunity to pay tribute to the unparalleled commitment of the Kashmiris for the attainment of the legitimate right to self-determination. “We reassure our Kashmiri brothers and sisters that we will remain consistent in our principled position on Kashmir. The entire Pakistani nation stands with its Kashmiri brethren in their valiant struggle to achieve the legitimate right to self-determination. It is our firm belief that the Kashmiris will succeed in their struggle,” he added.

The president observed that on this day, the Government of Pakistan and its people demonstrated to Kashmiri brothers and sisters and the world community that they had not forgotten the long pending dispute of Jammu and Kashmir and the struggle of the people of the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir against woeful Indian occupation. Behind its false narrative of ‘killing militants,’ India was trying to justify its terrorism, but had failed miserably, he added.

The president said the report of the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights was a turning point and a watershed moment for the Kashmiri community all over the world. He said Pakistan supported proposals contained in the report and called for an expedited establishment of a Commission of Inquiry to look into the human rights situation in IHK as per the recommendations of the report.

While, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said the observance of the Kashmir Solidarity Day commemorates the strong and unflinching resolve of the Kashmiris to achieve the inalienable right to self-determination from Indian subjugation.

The prime minister, in a message on the Kashmir Solidarity Day being commemorated on February 5, said that such resolve of the Kashmiris had not weakened rather strengthened with every passing day and with each new act of Indian cruelty in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

He said seven decades had passed and the dispute of Jammu and Kashmir remained unresolved. He said the report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Jammu and Kashmir echoed Pakistan’s repeated calls to the international community to take stock of India’s brutal use of pellet guns, indiscriminate firing, use of human shields and promulgation of the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Public Safety Act (PSA) that were making lives of the people in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir a living hell.

“Ruthless killings, pellet injuries to children and infants, rapes and torture; Indian atrocities in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir continue unabated and so does the spirit and courage of Kashmiris in their fight to achieve the legitimate right to self-determination,” he added.

The prime minister said Kashmiris had been fervently demanding an end to India’s illegitimate rule, spanning more than 70 long and bloody years. He said since 1947, the number of tortures, molestation and killings perpetrated by the Indian occupation forces against innocent Kashmiris had become a case study in unprecedented violence.

The prime minister said thousands of innocent Kashmiris had been brutally tortured and extra-judicially killed during forced disappearances or illegal custody by the Indian occupation forces, which enjoyed full immunity under draconian laws.

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan Ali Amin Khan Gandapur said on Monday that the entire Pakistani and Kashmiris across the world would be observing the Kashmir Solidarity Day with the pledge to continue supporting the indigenous struggle.

He said, “A strong solidarity message would be conveyed to our Kashmiri brethren across the LoC, who for the last seven decades have been facing the worst kind of human rights violations and brutalities at the hands of Indian occupation forces.”

The minister stated this at a media conference here regarding the Kashmir Solidarity Day, which is observed every year on February 05. He said that India had been denying the Kashmiris their right of self-determination despite the UN Security Council resolutions legitimising their right. He noted the Office of High Commissioner on Human Rights had effectively exposed the human rights violations and Indian brutalities in Indian Held Kashmir (IHK). In its recent report, similar kind of sentiments had also been expressed by the all parties Parliamentary Kashmir Group of UK Parliament, he added.

He urged the international community to come forward and play its due role in resolving the longstanding issue of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had made it clear in his first speech to the nation that relations between Pakistan and India could not normalise unless the Kashmir dispute was resolved according to the wishes of people of Jammu and Kashmir and UN Security Council resolutions.

The minister said that the chances of resumption of dialogue with India in the presence of Modi’s extremist government were quite slim. He hoped that the dialogue process between Pakistan and India for resolution of all outstanding issues, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, may revive, once a new government comes in power in India after the elections.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office has said that millions of people across the world are protesting in different parts of the world, including Athens, Rome and other cities, to show solidarity with the Kashmiris.

In a tweet on Monday, Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal said they are highlighting the human rights violations being committed by the Indian occupation forces in occupied Kashmir.