Rally held in Muzaffarabad against demolition in India-held Kashmir

Published February 16, 2023
MUZAFFARABAD: Kashmiri activists hold placards and black flags during a sit-in at Burhan Wani Chowk on Wednesday to condemn the ongoing demolition drive in India-held Jammu and Kashmir.—Photo by the writer
MUZAFFARABAD: Kashmiri activists hold placards and black flags during a sit-in at Burhan Wani Chowk on Wednesday to condemn the ongoing demolition drive in India-held Jammu and Kashmir.—Photo by the writer

MUZAFFARABAD: Kashmiri activists held a demonstration here on We­dnesday to condemn the ongoing demolition dri­­ve in India occupied Jammu and Kashmir, ter­ming it yet another “ghas­tly but abortive attempt by the fascist BJP-RSS regime to subdue the freedom seeking people” of the disputed Himalayan region.

The demonstration was organised by Pasban-i-Hur­riyat Jammu Kashmir (PHJK), an organisation of post-1989 migrants from across the divide, on the call of All Parties Hur­riyat Conference (APHC) at a bustling thoroughfare outside the press club.

At the beginning of the demonstration the PHJK activists, who were holding placards and a giant panaflex banner staged a symbolic sit-in at Burhan Wani Chowk for quite some time.

“Forcible occupation of Kashmiris’ land is unacceptable,” read one of the placards.

Later, they staged a ral­ly up to the Garhi Pan Cho­w­k, during which they kept on chanting anti-India and pro-freedom slogans.

Among the participants were Leader of the Oppo­sition in AJK Assembly Chaudhry Latif Akbar and Ja­­m­a­a­t­-­i-Islami AJK’s acting emir Shaikh Aqeelur Rehman.

Last month, Indian authorities had launched a massive demolition drive in the occupied territory, ap­­p­arently to remove enc­r­o­a­chments on the state land. How­ever, already braving a string of draconian measures at the hands of the Indian government in the wake of the revocation of special status of the occupied valley, the Kashmiris believe that the latest move resembles Israeli model in Palestine.

The demonstrators in Muzaffar­abad regretted that “silence of the international community and org­anisations, such as the UN and OIC, was encouraging India to car­ry on its dreadful actions in occupied Kashmir in sheer disregard to UNSC resolutions and int­ernational and bilateral treaties”.

“As the bullets and pellets were not enough, the fascist BJP-RSS regime is now using bulldozers like that of the Israelis in its desperate efforts to subdue the freedom seeking Kashmiris,” said PHJK leader Uzair Ghazali on the occasion.

“However, the latest move will also fail to break the resolve of the Kashmiris,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2023

Opinion

Editorial

Trump 2.0
Updated 07 Nov, 2024

Trump 2.0

It remains to be seen how his promises to bring ‘peace’ to Middle East reconcile with his blatantly pro-Israel bias.
Fait accompli
07 Nov, 2024

Fait accompli

A SLEW of secretively conceived and hastily enacted legislation has achieved its intended result: the powers of the...
IPP contracts
07 Nov, 2024

IPP contracts

THE government expects the ongoing ‘negotiations’ with power producers aimed at revising the terms of sovereign...
Rushed legislation
Updated 06 Nov, 2024

Rushed legislation

For all its stress on "supremacy of parliament", the ruling coalition has wasted no opportunity to reiterate where its allegiances truly lie.
Jail reform policy
06 Nov, 2024

Jail reform policy

THE state is making a fresh attempt to improve conditions in Pakistan’s penitentiaries by developing a national...
BISP overhaul
06 Nov, 2024

BISP overhaul

IT has emerged that the spouses of over 28,500 Sindh government employees have been illicitly benefiting from BISP....