PESHAWAR, Jul 19 (APP): Kashmir Accession to Pakistan Day was observed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where Kashmiris renewed their pledge to continue their legitimate struggle till the achievement of freedom from India’s yoke.
Like other provinces of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, the Kashmiris living in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa took out rallies and demonstrations, chanting slogans like ‘Kashmir Banay Ga Pakistan and India go out of IIOJK.”
On July 19, 1947, Kashmiri representatives unanimously passed the resolution of Kashmir’s Accession to Pakistan during a meeting of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference in Srinagar.
This important resolution called for the accession given aspirations of the Kashmir people and their religious, geographical, cultural and economic proximity to Pakistan.
From Chitral to Waziristan and Kohistan to Khyber, protest demonstrations and rallies attended by people of all walks of life and Kashmiris were held in all 37 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against the illegal occupation of IIOJK.
In Peshawar, a protest demonstration was also held in front of the Press Club where solidarity was expressed with the oppressed Kashmiris of IIOJK, who faced unending brutal oppression, human rights violations and organized state terrorism for the last 77 years with steadfastness and bravery.
The speakers said that the fascist Modi regime had broken all records of atrocities and organized state terrorism at IIOJK where Indian occupation forces were using human rights abuses against women and children as a weapon of war. They said the unlimited restrictions on free media imposed by the RSS-backed regime in IIOJK were meant to hide its forces against Israel like war crimes at IIOJK.
Chairman Jummu and Kashmir Peoples’ Freedom League, Farooq Rehmani said the people of Kashmir wanted to join Pakistan as per the Indo-Pakistan partition plan and started a freedom struggle against Maharaja Hari Singh and illegal occupation of India after Indian occupied forces illegally entered Srinagar on October 27, 1947.
“The Maharaja’s authority over Jammu and Kashmir state was officially ended on August 15, 1947, and people of Kashmir were left with no choice but to stand up against Maharaja Hari Singh’s illegal move and India’s forced occupation”, he maintained.
On January 1, 1948, it was India that brought the Kashmir issue before the UN, where it was agreed by several resolutions that the destiny of Jammu and Kashmir would be decided through a plebiscite under UN supervision.
Later, India had betracked from all UN resolutions and declined to hold the plebiscite in Kashmir which was a shared violation of the UN charter. On August 5, 2019, India abrogated the special status of IIOJK, attempting to rob Kashmiris of their history, language and identity.
The illegal move was to create a fear-psychosis within the population of held Kashmir and to convey the message that any person showing a semblance of resistance would be dealt with brutal force.
Farooq Rehmani said anybody writing against the occupation forces based on facts is slapped with the draconian Unlawful Public Activity Act (ULPA) and subsequently imprisoned without any judicial reprieve.
The cordon and search operations are held in all areas of the occupied land daily to create an atmosphere of fear and to arrest or kill youth. During this process, properties were destroyed besides human rights abuses against women and youngsters at IIOJK.
He said nearly one million Indian-occupied forces unleashed terror and killed hundreds of thousands of Kashmiris in fake encounters and extra-judicially as evidenced by young freedom fighter Burhan Wani and jailed hurriet leader Yasin Malik in a fake case.
Great Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Geelani was buried at night after Indian forces snatched his body from his family and Kashmiris were not allowed to attend the funeral of their beloved leader.
“Kashmir, the heaven on earth, has been blazing for more than seven decades, unnoticed by those who make global decisions,” said Professor Dr Ejaz Khan, former Chairman, the International Relations Department, University of Peshawar while talking to APP.
“India had been openly disregarding International laws and UN Security Council’s resolutions and committed sheer human rights violation in IIOJK but could not succeed in nefarious designs despite 77 years of endless brutalities”, he added.
Rehmani said the institutions that were previously under the jurisdiction of the IOK (Indian occupied Kashmir) Government are now run by New Delhi and there is assiduous effort to increase the number of Hindu applicants into Medical and Engineering Colleges.
He claimed that all the top-level government positions were held by Hindus from India at IIOJK where local Kashmiri officials are being marginalized. With the influx of a large population of Hindus from India, local Kashmiris find it difficult to compete even for the lower positions in the government, increasing unemployment and poverty there.
He said banks in IIOJK that used to provide an avenue of employment and funds for the local population have been heavily Indianized and filled with Hindus from India while any financial transaction taking place in the administrative sector has to go through the Reserve Bank of India besides destruction of agriculture land through construction of unnecessary roads and illegal housing colonies.
“The apple production being the main source of income for occupied Kashmiris, is systematically being decimated by many oppressive measures like delaying the harvest and impeding the transportation so that fruit gets destroyed in the process and Kashmiris suffer economic losses while revenue records are being tampered to change the ownership of commercial properties from Muslims to Hindus in the held valley.
Mushtaq Ahmed Shah, Vice Chairman, of Jummu and Kashmir Peoples League claimed that about six million illegal domicile certificates of IIOJK were provided to Hindus in a bid to bring about demographic change there.
“Forced disappearance of over 8,000 innocent Kashmiris, 8,652 unmarked mass graves, imposition of longest curfew on some 10 million unarmed Kashmiris, extrajudicial killings, rape and molestation of women and children exposed India’s ugly secular face”, he said.
He said over 162,000 Kashmiris have been subjected to inhuman torture by the Indian forces since 1989. Referring to the September 2021 Pakistani dossier having strong evidence of India’s involvement in war crimes and human rights abuses in IIOJK, he said about 8,652 unmarked graves had been identified in 89 villages of six districts in the held valley while bodies of 37 Kashmiris burnt alive by Indian forces were beyond recognition.
Since 1989, he claimed that over 96,000 cases of extrajudicial killings, over 25,000 pellet gun injuries, 11,250 women raped, 23,000 women widowed and over 108,000 children orphaned by the Indian army.
Former ambassador Manzoorul Haq said the illegal occupation of Kashmir by India contravened multiple articles of the 30 fundamental human rights of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) drafted by representatives from all the regions of the world including India on December 10, 1948, and adopted by UNGA.
He said this declaration is applied on all the signatory members of the UN including India and restrained them from abuse, exploitation, maltreatment and all kinds of violence.
Member All Parties Hurriyat Conference (Gillani Group), Hussain Khateeb said the burning of mosques, houses and shops belonging to Muslims at BJP-led Tripura state by Hindutva groups of RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal had exposed India’s disregard to minorities.
The mosques in Krishnagar, Dharmangar, Panisagar and Chandrapure were vandalized by the saffron-wearing youth in the planned attacks on the Muslim population in India, he concluded.