AJK observes Maqbool Butt’s anniversary

MIRPUR: The people across Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Tuesday observed the 36th anniversary of eminent leader of Kashmir freedom movement, Maqbool Butt, with the renewal of the pledge to continue his mission till the achievement of Kashmiris’ legitimate right to self-determination under the spirit of the UN resolutions.

Processions and rallies were taken out in all small and major towns of AJK to pay tributes to Maqbool Butt who was put to gallows by India on February 11, 1984 in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail for his “offence” of demanding the birth right to self-determination for the people of Jammu and Kashmir under the spirit of international norms and commitments to this direction.

A number of organisations arranged special functions to observe the anniversary of one of the founding leaders of the Kashmir freedom struggle.

A joint demonstration was staged coupled with a big procession taken out by various social, political and student organisations — including Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Conference, Jammu Kashmir Plebiscite Front, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, Jammu Kashmir National Students Federation, J&K Students Liberation Front and other groups — to pay tributes to the hero of the Kashmir freedom struggle.

The people marched through major city streets chanting anti-India and pro-freedom slogans, besides the slogans in commemoration of the supreme sacrifices of Maqbool Butt, Dr Afzal Guru and other Kashmiri leaders.

The procession converged into a mammoth rally at the central Shaheed Chowk. Addressing the rally, the speakers including former president Jammu Kashmir Plebiscite Front Azeem Dutt Advocate, JKLF leaders — Saad Insari Advocate and Khawaja Pervez Iqbal and others paid tributes to Maqbool Butt for giving supreme sacrifice of his life for the cause of liberation of Jammu and Kashmir from the Indian yoke.

The speakers reiterated the Kashmiris’ resolve to continue their mission for bringing the Kashmir freedom struggle to its logical end. They called upon the international community to exert pressure on India to immediately handover the mortal remains of Maqbool Butt to his family for burial with religious respect and honour.

They said Butt’s sacrifice infused a new spirit and resolve among Kashmiris to accelerate struggle for the achievement of their fundamental right to self-determination constantly being denied by India for the last 73 years. “The best way to pay rich tributes to Maqbool Butt is to continue his mission of the freedom struggle till the achievement of the goal,” they added.

Paying tributes to Kashmiri freedom-fighter Muhammad Afzal Guru, also hanged in New Delhi’s Tihar jail on February 9, 2013, the speakers said Guru was wrongly implicated in the case as he was already behind the bars in the Indian prison on the day of alleged attack on the Indian parliament’s building in New Delhi in 2001. They called upon the International Court of Justice to constitute an inquiry commission to probe into judicial murder of Afzal Guru.

They urged upon UN as well as international human rights organisations, especially the Amnesty International, to immediately move against the continual genocide of the innocent Kashmiris in Indian-held Kashmir.

They demanded inclusion of Jammu and Kashmir people — major party to the Kashmir dispute — in the dialogue between India and Pakistan for early peaceful resolution of Kashmir issue according to their (Kashmiris’) aspirations.

They reminded the UN of its responsibility to play its due role for early peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue to save the region from the threat of nuclear conflict between Pakistan and India.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister AJK Raja Farooq Haider Khan, while paying tribute to Maqbool Butt, said he was a shining star of the Kashmir liberation movement who gave the movement a new dimension by accepting death sentence rather than bowing before the Indian government.

In a statement, Haider said Kashmir liberation movement was vibrant due to its historical background having sacrifices of thousands of Kashmiri people — Maqbool Butt and Afzal Guru amongst them — and could not be suppressed by the use of force.

He said the liberation movement was running in the blood of every Kashmiri and his government will bring out all resources for the movement till the complete freedom from the Indian clutches.

He demanded from the Indian government to handover Butt’s body to Kashmiris for his funeral in Kashmir.