MUZAFFARABAD: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Emir Senator Sirajul Haq on Friday called upon the international community to help Kashmiris in their struggle for freedom from Indian occupation.

“International community should exert pressure on India to honour its commitments on Kashmir and in case India continues with its obduracy, the world community should provide material support to Kashmiris to throw out Indian troops the same way it had offered support for eviction of the defunct USSR from Afghanistan,” he said while addressing a gathering at the district headquarters complex.

The gathering was part of numerous events held across the country to mark Kashmir Solidarity Day.

Mr Haq said if the UN could play a role for referendums in East Timor, South Sudan and other areas, why it was not showing similar efficiency in Kashmir.

“Today millions of people are expressing solidarity with the Kashmiris in an ample message to the whole world that this issue cannot be swept under the carpet,” he said.

The JI chief asked Islamabad to stick to the categorical stand of the entire nation on Kashmir issue.

“The good thing is that all political and religious parties of Pakistan are unanimous on Kashmir, irrespective of their local differences,” he said.

Stating that Indian intelligence agency RAW was involved in acts of terrorism in Pakistan, he exhorted the government and parliamentarians to make it known to the world that who was involved in those ghastly acts and why.

Recalling instructions of the Quaid-i-Azam to the then army chief to move troops in Kashmir, he said the government of Pakistan should fulfil its constitutional responsibilities and play a pro-active role for early freedom of Kashmir.

In a reference to Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), he said the federal government should unite all units of the state of Jammu and Kashmir (under its control) and give them constitutional rights.

Speaking on the occasion, GB Legislative Assembly deputy speaker Jafarullah Khan said that GB people, who had offered sacrifices for their freedom, also stood by their freedom-seeking brethren in India-held Kashmir.

He regretted that when the black law, FCR, was slammed on GB people, nobody came out in their support. “However we will offer sacrifices for the freedom of Kashmir,” he said.

Prominent among those who spoke were JI chief in AJK Abdul Rashid Turabi, JI secretary information Amirul Azeem, former GB law minister Advocate Mushtaq Ahmed and APHC leader Ghulam Mohammad Safi.

Earlier, Mr Haq joined hundreds of people from AJK and Pakistan, including young students, at Kohala Bridge, some 35 kilometres south of here, to form a symbolic human chain in a manifestation of eternal bonds of brotherhood between the two sides.

“Kashmir and Pakistan are part and parcel of each other. If Pakistan is body, Kashmir is its soul. Without Kashmir, our freedom is incomplete,” said Mr Haq on the occasion.

Prominent among others were Mr Turabi, MNA Maulana Amiruz Zaman, Punjab minister for minerals Chaudhry Sher Ali, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister for food Qalandar Khan Lodhi, adviser to AJK president Raja Sajid Hussain.

Similar human chains were formed at Bararkot, Azad Pattan, Tain-Dhalkot Bharing, Holaar, Mangla and some other points marking AJK’s border with Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2016