Kashmiris observe Right to Self-Determination Day

ISLAMABAD: Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) and across the world on Sunday observed the Right to Self-Determination Day with the pledge to continue their liberation struggle till its logical conclusion.

It was on January 5, 1949 when the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed a resolution supporting the Kashmiris’ right to decide their future by themselves through a UN-sponsored plebiscite. The day is marked by various activities including rallies, seminars and conferences across the world to remind the UN that it must implement its relevant resolutions to settle the Kashmir dispute to save the Kashmiris from the Indian brutalities.

This year, the day was observed when the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) was under continued military siege on the 154th consecutive day, Sunday. President Dr Arif Alvi while calling the United Nations of honoring its commitments made 71 years ago, said the Right to Self-Determination Day was a reminder to global community that they could not shy away from their responsibility towards the Kashmiri people.

In his message to the nation on Right toSelf-Determination Day, the president said the right to self-determination was a vital component of the human dignity. “Negation of this right is the negation of human freedom, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Human Rights covenants,” he remarked.

In the post-colonial era, he said the realisation of this inalienable right paved the way for successful culmination of freedom struggles in different parts of the world, including in South Asia.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minster on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan urged the UNSC to give Kashmiris their right to self-determination by fulfilling its promise that it made some 71 years before.

“The Kashmir issue was getting prolonged as the UNSC was playing the role of a silent spectator and failed to implement its resolutions passed some seven decades ago to grant Kashmiris their right to self-determination,” she said.

Dr Firdous, in a series of tweets through her official account, said the people of IOK were being subjugated, tortured and humiliated for demanding their democratic, legitimate and basic right.

The Kashmiris were being killed unjustly for the last 71 years, she regretted. She said the day of January, 05, when the UN Security Council approved its resolutions for Kashmiris right to self -determination in 1949, reminded the UNSC to fulfil its promise with brave and determined Kashmiris to provide them violence-free environment. The entire nation, under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, stood with Kashmiri brethren and would continue to extend its diplomatic, moral and political support to them.

Dr Firdous said their (Kashmiris) determination against Indian tyrannies and suppression was manifestation of the fact that they would succeed one day in defeating their enemy (India). The special meetings highlighted the importance of early grant of the right of self-determination to Jammu Kashmir people which was being suppressed and denied by India since over last 71 years at the might of her occupational military forces.

Thousands of people thronged the city streets in AJK’s metropolis in morning and staged a mammoth rally under the leadership of the Prime Minister of AJK government Raja Farooq Haider Khan.

A demonstration of symbolic plebiscite/referendum was held on this occasion to raise the significance of early holding of the plebiscite under the above January 05, 1949 resolutions to provide much-awaited opportunity to Kashmiris to decide about their destiny.

The AJK prime minister participated in this symbolic balloting by casting the vote to reiterate the much-cherished demand of early holding of the plebiscite in entire internationally acknowledged disputed Jammu and Kashmir state.

Similar special rallies were also held at different other parts of AJK including in Bhimbher district of Mirpur division to mark the Right to Self-Determination Day.

Addressing the rallies, speakers warned that the people of Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir will respond to every aggressive posture and misadventure on the part of India if launched against Pakistan or AJK with the same coin shoulder to shoulder the valiant armed forces of Pakistan for the defence of inch after inch of the motherland.

“The people of Jammu and Kashmir will not hesitate to give any sacrifice for the defence of the security, stability, sovereignty and the ideological and geographical frontiers of Pakistan including AJK in case of any aggression from across the frontiers including the line of control in Jammu and Kashmir,” they warned.

New Delhi is denying the Jammu and Kashmir people of their legitimate right to self-determination at the might over a million of her occupying troops in occupied Jammu and Kashmir since over last 71 years and most particularly through the recent unilateral August 5, 2019 act of scrapping the special status of the internationally-acknowledged disputed Jammu Kashmir state.

The meetings strongly condemned the repeated violation of the Line of Control by India through the frequent incidents of the unprovoked firing by the Indian troops on the LoC in AJK facing occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

They called upon the UN and other international community to take immediate notice of the increased aggressive designs of India in the region which they warned, may turn into a conventional war in the region. The Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League Vice Chairman and APHC AJK leader Syed Aijaz Rehmani said that the stand and sacrifices of Kashmiris will not be allowed to go waste and their mission will be accomplished at all costs.

Syed Aijaz Rehmani in a statement issued on Sunday appealed to the United Nations to resolve Kashmir dispute as per the resolutions. He urged India to take steps towards settling the Kashmir dispute through talks involving Pakistan, India and the genuine Kashmiri leadership for ensuring durable peace in South Asia.

Like other parts of the country, the Right to Self-Determination Day was also observed in Hyderabad to express solidarity with the people of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and their struggle for freedom of Jammu and Kashmir.

In this connection, a rally led by Commissioner Hyderabad Mohammed Abbas Baloch was taken out from commissioner office at Shahbaz Building to General Post office Thandi Sarak.

Meanwhile, President Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan stressed that the power of pen, computer, and camera should be used to highlight voice of Kashmiri people across the globe and to eliminate social evils in the society.

He said exposing of what is happening in occupied Kashmir and India was the basic responsibility of local, regional, national, and international media. He said our journalist fraternity has always kept the Kashmir liberation movement on top of their priorities, which was a matter of satisfaction.

Mishal Malik, the wife of Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik, hoped that 2020 would be an year of Kashmiris’ freedom as the government of Pakistan was pleading their case at international level in effective manners. She said every religion in the world preached peace and promoted inter-faith harmony, but unfortunately ''Hinduvta'' mindset in India was violating moral and democratic norms and infringing the basic rights of its citizens by introducing the Citizenship Amendment Act.