Kashmiris observe Black Day across globe today
• India turns IIOJK into garrison to celebrate its Republic Day
Srinagar, January 26 (KMS): Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control and across the world observed the Indian Republic Day, the 26th January, as Black Day, today, to remind the international community that India’s continued denial of right to self-determination to the Kashmiri people is contrary to its claim of being a democratic republic.
According to Kashmir Media Service, call for the observance of the Black Day was given by the All Parties Hurriyat Conference.
The authorities in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir turned the entire Kashmir valley and parts of Jammu region into a military garrison by deploying Indian troops, police and paramilitary personnel in strength. Srinagar and Jammu cities were offering a look of fortresses. The roads leading towards the cricket Stadium at Sonawar, Srinagar, and Maulana Azad Stadium in Jammu, the main venues of the Indian Republic Day functions were sealed with barbed wires and barricades.
The APHC leaders and other organizations including Ghulam Muhammad Khan Sopori, Syed Bashir Andrabi, Khawaja Firdous, Khadim Hussain, Maulana Sibte Shabbir Qummi, Abdul Samad Inqilabi, Dr Musaib, Muhammad Aqib and Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Hurriyat Front in their statements said India is not a democratic but a terrorist country as its troops are involved in genocide of innocent Kashmiris. They said that India’s Republic Day and Independence Day always bring more miseries to the Kashmiri people. Posters pasted on walls and poles in Srinagar and other areas of the Kashmir Valley by Hurriyat organizations read that India has no legal or moral justification to celebrate its Republic Day in IIOJK as it was holding the territory against the will of the Kashmiri people.
Peoples Democratic Party President, Mehbooba Mufti, in a tweet said that the occupation authorities forced the shopkeepers to keep their shops open to project normalcy in the territory on the occasion of India’s Republic Day. She said while the people in India were celebrating Republic Day as a holiday, today, shopkeepers in Kashmir were ordered to keep their shops open or face consequences.
The APHC-AJK chapter staged a protest in front of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad while anti-India demonstrations and rallies were held in Muzaffarabad and other cities of Azad Jammu and Kashmir on India’s Republic Day, today. The participants of the demonstrations and rallies organized by APHC-AJK, Pasban-e-Hurriyat and other organizations were holding black flags and banners as well as placards with slogans against India and in favour of Kashmir’s freedom from Indian occupation. KMS