Political parties and general public on Sunday observed Kashmir Solidarity Day across the city as various events were held to express solidarity with the oppressed Kashmirs of the Indian-Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK).
In his message, Sindh Information and Transport Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said February 5 was the day to renew our pledge for the support of Kashmiris' struggle for freedom against the Indian tyranny.
He said that the Kashmiris were not alone in their struggle for freedom as the people of Pakistan were with them. The provincial minister remarked that the people of IIOJK had kept the Kashmir issue alive with their unmatchable sacrifices and no mode of oppression by India could end the spirit of resistance of the people of Kashmir.
Memon said the Modi government had turned the occupied valley into the largest prison of the world by abolition of the Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. He lamented that 900,000 Indian troops had made the lives of people in the Kashmir valley miserable.
He added that the Pakistani nation had had a principled and historical stance on the issue of Kashmir, which had always remained as a top point of the manifesto of the Pakistan Peoples Party.
Meanwhile, various political parties, including the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), PPP, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), held demonstrations to express solidarity with the people of the IIOJK.
A large number of people participated in a march organised by the JI from Jail Chowrangi to the Mazar-e-Quaid to denounce the Indian oppression in the IIOJK. Pakistan JI Secretary General Ameerul Azeem delivered the keynote address at the march, in which he declared Kashmir as an unfinished agenda for the completion of Pakistan.
He recalled that it was India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru who had brought the matter of Kashmir to the United Nations that decided a plebiscite for the people of Kashmir as that they could exercise their own will.
He criticised the federal government for what he said not doing enough for the Kashmir issue. He said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, PPP and PTI always attempted for peace talks instead of raising the cause of the oppressed people of the IIOJK.
The JI leader paid rich tribute to Syed Ali Gillani for his freedom struggle. JI leader Osama Razi recalled that it was JI’s former chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed who had floated the idea of observing February 5 as Kashmir Solidarity Day in Pakistan.
JI Minorities Wing President Younus Sohan Advocate, Sardar Maghan Singh from the Sikh community, Prof Manoj Chohan from the Hindu community and Pastor Mohsin Iqbal from the Christian community also addressed the rally and expressed solidarity with the Kashmiris.
Meanwhile, Karachi PTI President Bilal Ghaffar also denounced the Indian atrocities in the occupied region as he spoke to the media outside the Insaf House. He lamented that the people of IIOJK were being subjected to oppression because they were demanding their due rights. He said Muslims were being targeted in various regions of the world, including Kashmir and Palestine.
According to Ghaffar, no one had fought the Kashmir case before the global community like PTI Chairman Imran Khan who had said that he would never stop supporting Kashmiris come what may.
The TLP held a march from the Tibet Centre to the Karachi Press Club where its leaders demanded freedom for the oppressed Kashmiris. TLP leader Mufti Qasim Fakhri criticised the United Nations for not effectively intervening to stop the Indian oppression in the IIOJK. He said none of the United Nations resolutions on Kashmir and Palestine had been implemented, which showed that the global community had turned a blind eye to those issues.
At a workers convention of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), the party convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui condemned religious extremism in India. Expressing solidarity with the people of the IIOJK, he said a religious fanatic had been ruling India for the past 10 years.
Pakistan would continue its diplomatic and moral support for the Kashmiris, he said. MQM-P Senior Deputy Convener Dr Farooq Sattar said the agenda of Pakistan's creation would not be complete until the independence of Kashmir.
