In support of Kashmiris: Pakistan observes Yaum-e-Istehsal today

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will observe the Yaum-e-Istehsal today (August 5) to mark the third year of Indian military siege of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) and denounce illegal, immoral and unconstitutional step to strip its special status.

The government has planned a series of activities including seminars and conferences to mark the Yaum-e-Istehsal and express solidarity with the oppressed Kashmiris while rallies in their support would be held across the country with vibrant participation of people from all walks of life.

The whole nation will give a message to their Kashmiri brethren that the people of Pakistan will always stand by them in their just struggle for independence and against the atrocities committed by Indian forces. Kashmiri people on both sides of the Line of Control and all over the world will also observe the Yaum-e-Istehsal to condemn the unconstitutional step taken by India on August 5, 2019.The activists of all political parties will record protest over Indian state terrorism. The civil society organizations will also arrange seminars and other programmes to highlight gross human rights violations against Kashmiri people. One minute silence will be observed across the country and traffic will be halted for one minute and sirens will be played.

Posters and billboards have been displayed on the main roads of Islamabad and provincial capitals to highlight the plight of Kashmiri people and expose the atrocities being committed by the occupation forces in IIOJ&K. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has released the teaser of song Jalta Hai Kashmir, which will be aired today to expose the atrocities of Indian army in Kashmir and show solidarity with Kashmiris. The Lok Virsa in collaboration with the Ministry of Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan has planned special programmes.

On August 5, 2019, the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government had struck down Articles 370 and 35-A of the Indian constitution, thereby scrapping the law that granted Kashmir its special status.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said the just struggle of the people of IIOJ&K to realize their right to self-determination, guaranteed under several resolutions of the UN Security Council, was being suppressed through brutal force by Indian occupation forces.

In a message on the eve of the Yaum-e-Istehsal, he said it was the indomitable will and courage of Kashmiris that enabled them to withstand every Indian attempt to terrorize and subjugate them. India failed, despite all its coercive methods, to extinguish their yearning for freedom and crush their indigenous and legitimate resistance.

He said the IIOJ&K dispute had been on the United Nations agenda for over seven decades. This longstanding dispute must be resolved with a sense of urgency and responsibility.

He said the Indian government, under the hold of the BJP-RSS combine, was unabashedly pushing its Hindutva agenda to alter the demographic structure of IIOJ&K in blatant violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and international law, including the 4th Geneva Convention.

The PM said India’s settler-colonialism mindset was driven by its quest to permanently occupy the disputed territory and obliterate its distinct Kashmiri identity. By deploying additional troops and imposing unprecedented media restrictions since August 5, 2019, the Indian occupation forces had turned IIOJ&K into the largest prison on the planet. He said the human rights situation in IIOJ&K had seriously deteriorated over the last three years.

Pakistan People’s Party Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said the nation will not sit idle unless the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir win freedom.

“India has cunningly changed Articles 370 and 35-A of its constitution and thus messed with UN resolutions on IIOJ&K. It has played with the regional peace and stability, which can’t be ignored,” he said in a statement on the eve of the Yaum-e-Istehsal. He said that in the last three years after the change in Kashmir status, Kashmiris had been deprived of basic human rights including the freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

He urged the United Nations to take appropriate action for implementing its charter and restoring human rights in the Occupied Kashmir. He demanded an immediate end to the ongoing siege of the occupied valley by one million Indian troops and immediate release of all imprisoned and unlawfully-detained freedom activists including Yasin Malik and Mir Waiz Umar Farooq. Slamming the Modi government, he termed the ‘conviction’ of Yasin Malik in a false case a naked act of tyranny. He said Malik had been a victim of extreme inhumane treatment in jail only at the behest of the Indian government. He said the tyrant Modi government couldn’t continue the ongoing oppression in IIOJ&K.

The PPP chairman reiterated his commitment that Pakistan would continue to provide all possible moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmir freedom movement to cement its ongoing struggle for the right to self-determination. He said the world stood by Kashmiris and their freedom was not very far. He paid homage to all Kashmiri martyrs who sacrificed their lives during the freedom movement including Shaheed Burhan Wani.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa acting Governor Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani condemned the ongoing Indian atrocities against innocent Kashmiris, saying that the whole nation supported the people of Kashmiri who had been facing brutalities in IIOJ&K for decades. In a message issued here on Thursday in connection with the Yaum-e-Istehsal, he said the Pakistani nation would continue its moral and diplomatic support to the people of Kashmir.