WASHINGTON, Jul 14 (APP):Kashmiri-Americans and their supporters across the United States observed Martyrs Day on Thursday, vowing to carry forward their struggle for their United Nations-promised right of self-determination and liberation from India’s yoke.
The day marks the killing of 22 Kashmiris by troops of the then Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh. The deadly shooting occurred on July 13, 1931, in front of the Srinagar jail.
Since that day, Kashmiris have organized peaceful protests, seminars, and conferences throughout the world to renew their resolve to win freedom to pay homage to those martyrs as well as to those more than 100,000 innocent men, women and children brutally killed by Indian occupation forces since that fateful day.
Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary General of the World Kashmir Awareness Forum, an advocacy group, made an imperative appeal for the world powers to recognize the long-standing wishes and aspirations of the Kashmiri people for freedom.
“The people of Kashmir will never forget the selfless contribution and the tireless efforts of these martyrs. Their efforts will remain forever a milestone in the history of the freedom struggle of Kashmir,” Fai reiterated.
Dr. Fai stressed that the people of Kashmir have little faith in or respect for the so-called Indian democracy, recalling a last year’s New York Times Op-Ed which said, ‘Modi’s India Is Where Global Democracy Dies.’ And on August 5, 2019, Huffington Post wrote, ‘As Kashmir Is Erased, Indian Democracy Dies In Silence.’
“The desire for self-determination is the one very big ‘element’ India should be concerned about yet continues to pretend to the world that it does not exist,” Fai said, adding that such tactics will not subdue the decades-old movement against its rule in Kashmir.
Nevertheless, he said, the people of Kashmir have sent a loud and clear message to the world community that the Kashmir issue is not about governance or economic packages, or financial incentives as proclaimed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he abrogated Article 370 & 35 A on August 5, 2019. “They want the world to know that the youth of Kashmir are dying on the streets, not asking for jobs and roads, but asking the people’s right — the right to self-determination.”
Fai emphasized that the brutalities of Indian government cannot and should not go unnoticed. Otherwise, how can one explain the vision of US President JoeBiden who said, ‘I have taken concrete steps to put human rights back at the centre of our foreign policy and reassert our moral leadership on the global state’ and conveniently ignored to tell PM Modi on June 22, 2023 that Kashmir was at the brink of genocide, as warned by Dr. Gregory Stanton, the Chairman of the Genocide watch.
”The people of Kashmir ask the people of the world to stand up and speak up for the freedom of Kashmir. Our appeal to the Biden Administration is to seriously engage India, Pakistan and legitimate representatives of Kashmir in a result-oriented peaceful resolution of this conflict,” Fai said.
“We demand immediate and complete restoration of all basic human rights, including freedom of movement, assembly and speech, and access to all forms of communication, and unconditional release of all political prisoners, including Mohammad Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Masarat Aalam, Aasia Andarbi and release of an internationally known human rights defender, Khurram Parvez, who was put by Time Magazine among the 100 most influential people of 2022 and about whom, Mary Lawlor , UN Special Rapporteur on Human rights Defenders said, ‘Khurram Parvez is not a terrorist. He is a human rights defender’.”
