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Updated 20 Jul, 2013 07:35am

Kashmir killings spark protest

MUZAFFARABAD, July 19: A rally was taken out here on Friday to condemn the cold blooded killing of Kashmiri Muslims in Ramban area of occupied Kashmir when they were demonstrating against the desecration of the Quran by Indian forces.

The rally was taken out by Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) chapter of Jamaat ud Dawa (Jud) from its office in Chehla Bandi. However, Kashmiri refugees and representatives of some other Kashmiri groups also joined from the Press Club.

“Down with India, down with its supporters,” chanted the protestors as they paraded through the capital’s main artery.

They were holding JuD flags, banners and placards, inscribed with slogans paying tributes to the martyrs of Ramban tragedy and condemned Indian occupation forces for their unrelenting tyranny.

Earlier speaking to the protestors, JuD AJK Ameer Maulana Abdul Aziz Alvi said the killings were intolerable, unpardonable and would be avenged.

He said more painful than the killings was the silence of the international community, particularly Muslim countries.

“Western countries continue to shed tears over the shooting of Malala Yousufzai in Swat but when it comes to the shooting of innocent and unarmed people in Kashmir they are quiet, which reflects their double standards,” Mr Alvi said.

He called upon the governments in Islamabad and Muzaffarabad to send a loud and clear message to New Delhi that terrorism in occupied Kashmir was unacceptable and could not be tolerated.While paying glowing rich tributes to the martyrs for sacrificing their lives for the sanctity of Holy Quran, the JuD leader declared that freedom fighters would take its revenge on Indian soldiers at all costs.

Uzair Ahmed Ghizali, a leader of Kashmiri refugees, pointed that presence of draconian laws in occupied Kashmir had incited Indian troops to usurp even the religious rights of the Kashmiri Muslims.

“Where are the so-called champions of human rights? Why don’t they act or at least speak against the unrelenting terrorism unleashed by Indian troops in occupied Kashmir,” Mr Ghizali asked.

Mushtaq ul Islam of Peoples Freedom League regretted that while India was engaged in a killing spree in occupied Kashmir, Pakistan was talking of trade and friendship with it, “which amounts to rubbing salt into the wounds of oppressed Kashmiris.”“You (Pakistan) call Kashmir your jugular vein but ironically you want friendship and trade relations with a country (India) which has occupied your jugular vein… Is it not a disgrace?”

Others who spoke on the occasion included Manzoor Shaikh of Jamaat e Islami, Ali Bahadur of Kashmir Liberation Movement, Mir Imtiaz, Saeed Mughal, Bilal Farooqi, Anwar Mahmood and Mohammad Asif.

Later, the protestors also torched India’s flag as a mark of condemnation of the “killer state.”

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