RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Qamar Javed Bajwa said Kashmir is Pakistan's jugular vein and that we will never abandon our Kashmiri brethren.
He was addressing the Defense and Martyrs Day ceremony at the army headquarters in Rawalpindi.
Jammu & Kashmir is an unfinished agenda of the completion of Pakistan and it will remain so until the outstanding dispute is resolved in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions and aspirations of Kashmiri people, General Bajwa said.
“Today’s Pakistan gives a message of peace and this message is for the whole world. Pakistan has fulfilled its responsibilities and it is now up to the global community to reject extremism.”
The sacrifices of our martyrs will not go in vain, the army chief said adding that the environment in the country is peaceful now.
In Indian Occupied Kashmir, he said that state terrorism is at its peak and Pakistan will go to any lengths for the Kashmiris. He said Kashmiri population is the victim of the oppression and tyranny of India's Hindutava government.
The ceremony to pay tributes to the martyrs was held at the GHQ where the families of martyrs were specially invited.
At the start of the ceremony, the COAS laid the floral wreath at the Yadgar-e-Shuhada.
A documentary was also shown in which the martyrs were remembered by their families and friends.
Earlier, DG Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor said national spirit was must for defence of the country, adding that living nations always remember their martyrs.
He told a TV channel that the families of martyrs were first priority of the armed forces adding that it was also duty of the nation to take care of families of martyrs.
The ISPR chief said the whole nation had given sacrifices in the war against terrorism adding that 81,000 civilians and officers and jawans of armed forces had sacrificed their lives for the cause.
“The number of civilian martyrs is more than the martyrs of armed forces,” he said.
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