MUZAFFARABAD: People in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) staged demonstrations on the second consecutive day on Wednesday to record their protest over the visit of India’s home minister Amit Shah to the illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir calling him “killer of Kashmiris”.

Mr Shah, who is said to be the mastermind of India’s controversial August 5, 2019 move revoking the statehood and special status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir, had arrived in the occupied territory on Monday, amid tight security which also saw suspension of internet and some other communication facilities. On Wednesday, the last day of his visit, he addressed, among other things, a rally in Baramulla, where, according to a section of Indian media, government servants were forced by their seniors to show up.

In state capital Muzaffarabad, a “freedom march” was held under the aegis of Pasban-i-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir (PHJK), an organisation of post-1989 migrants from occupied Kashmir, against Mr Shah’s visit in Lal Chowk of Upper Adda.

The demonstrators, who included a sizable number of women, were holding black flags, banners and placards inscribed with slogans against India’s fascism and Mr Shah.

They marched through the main artery up to Burhan Wani Chowk, where they also burnt an effigy of Mr Shah.

“If this brutish BJP leader, who introduced the August 5, 2019 controversial bill, truly believed that his move had calmed the Kashmiris, why were all the areas of his activities cordoned off by thousands of armed personnel,” questioned PHJK chief Uzair Ghazali.

He said every single Kashmiri disliked Indian rulers, soldiers and government system to the core, which was why they had completely boycotted Mr Shah’s visit.

In the lakeside city of Mirpur, a rally started from a state-run university and concluded at the bustling Chowk-i-Shaheedan, where an effigy of Mr Shah was set ablaze by angry protesters amid anti-India and pro-freedom slogans.

They were also holdingblack flags and placards inscribed with slogans condemning denial of right to self-determination to the Kashmiris by India and the tyranny unleashed by its security apparatus in occupied Kashmir.

“We want to register our protest against India’s unrelenting repression which has intensified in the wake of India’s unilateral move to revoke the special status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir in sheer violation of the UN Security Council resolutions and all international covenants,” said advocate Sidra Latif, one of the participants of the demonstration.

Chaudhry Mehmood, president Anjuman-i-Tajran Mirpur, said India had turned the entire occupied territory into the largest prison on the earth and the RSS-led regime was not only mercilessly killing innocent people in their homes and streets but also in prisons.

Raja Khalid Rathore, president of a non-gazetted employees’ body in Mirpur, said India could not subdue the passion of Kashmiris to get freedom from its subjugation.

“The struggle against India would continue at all fronts till the eviction of its last soldier from the sacred soil of our motherland,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2022