LAHORE: The Lahore Left Front, a conglomerate of left wing groups, organisations, parties and individuals from the provincial capital, Aurat March organisers, student bodies from various institutions of Lahore and Jammu and Kashmir, and civil society came together for a huge demonstration at Liberty Chowk in solidarity with the people of Kashmir.

The Jammu and Kashmir Student Council and JKNSF (Jammu and Kashmir chapter for National Student Federation) looked very vocal about the human rights violations by India in held Kashmir.

Speaking about the Kashmir issue, Awami Workers’ Party leader and convener of Lahore Left Front, Farooq Tariq, said their instant demands included end to curfew and media blackout in Kashmir at once.

He said these undemocratic moves by the Indian government with the suspension of human rights showed its tyranny on the Kashmiris.

“We also do not stand by this slogan that Kashmir will become part of Pakistan, because the matter should lie in the hands of Kashmiri people. They must decide their own fate,” said Mr Tariq. “We also condemn the militarisation on both sides of Kashmir.”

He said that the left front in both Pakistan and India had come out for Kashmiris’ rights.

“We also condemn the campaigns against Shehla Rasheed, and arrested leaders there. A leftist friend who is also an MLA is suffering in jail in Kashmir and we demand his immediate release.”

Farooq Tariq said even if they were already diluted, the revocation of the two articles, 370 and 35-A, must be reversed because Kashmir was a nation and you could not imprison a nation.

Tariq also spoke about rising fascism across South Asia, saying that the use of Hindutva style politics had ruined India’s own image.

Fatima Razzaq from the Kinnaird College, one of the organisers of the rally, spoke about the resistance of the civilians in Kashmir against the Indian army.

She praised the people of Kashmir for their constant struggle for freedom from tyranny and militarization.

“I especially salute the women who have been subjected to the worst kind of brutality by the Indian occupying forces.

They remain the most vulnerable stakeholders. They are seen as ‘spoils of war’ in the patriarchal war of competing hyper-nationalist fantasies.”

Nyla Naz from Women Action Forum (WAF), Haider Gul, an activist from Gilgit Baltistan, Qaisar Javed from the Jammu and Kashmir Students Council and JK National Student Federation’s Sardar Sheheryar also spoke.

Aurat March organisers, in an attempt to bring forward the Kashmiri voices, also presented a charter of demands that included immediate end to the occupation, illegal annexation, militarisation, arbitrary detentions and terrorisation of the people of Kashmir.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2019