Kashmiris living in Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Indian Illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday observed India’s Independence Day as a black day to mark protest against long forced and illegal occupation of a large part of Jammu and Kashmir State by India. In district Mirpur, a protest rally was staged to observe the black day, through a unanimously passed resolution warning India to abstain from launching any aggression against Pakistan or Azad Jammu & Kashmir.
“Every individual of AJK is fully prepared to make a defense of inch after inch of the motherland – shoulder to shoulder with valiant armed forces of Pakistan if India dared to launch any attack against Pakistan or AJK”, the rally declared. The rally thanked and paid rich tributes to the people of Pakistan for their unequivocal full support of Kashmiri’s struggle for right self-determination.
The Indian independence day was marked with mass anti-India protest rallies and demonstrations in all small and major towns in the liberated territory including the capital city of Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, Kotli, Bhimbher, Rawalakot, Bagh, Palandri, Neelam Valley, Jhelum valley, Havaili and other towns and villages. People from diverse segments of civil society including social, political, and other public representative organization attended the rallies holding black flags and wearing black bands around their arms to mark Indian Independence Day as black day. In Mirpur, elders of the city representing all segments of life including social and political workers, employees of private and public sector organizations besides senior officials led the rally which marched through major city streets including Quid e Azam Chowk, Mian Muhammad Road, Allama Iqbal Road, and central Shaheed chowk raising zindabad slogans for Pakistan and the valiant armed forces of the country. The rally expressed grave concern over the fast-deteriorating conditions of the people in strife-torn and fully-locked indefinite curfew-riddled Indian held Jammu and Kashmir for the past 10 days. India, it said, has latterly turned the occupied J&K state into the world’s largest jail and garrison.
The rally, through another resolution, called upon the international community especially the United Nations to immediately move for getting the special status of the disputed Jammu & Kashmir state restored – for onward early peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue in line with the UN resolutions. It urged the world body to take immediate notice of history’s worst Indian act of state terrorism and aggression let loose against the innocent people in occupied Jammu Kashmir by forcibly revoking the special status of the disputed state. Through another unanimously passed resolution, the rally called upon the world body – UNO, international human rights organizations including Amnesty International, Red Cross, Human Rights Watch, and others to immediately move for ensuring the supply of food and medicines to save the lives of the house-detained people in curfew-riddled occupied Jammu & Kashmir state in general and the Muslim-majority areas of the troubled valley in particular.
