MUZAFFARABAD: Rallies and demonstrations were staged in different parts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Pakistan as well as in some important Western capitals on Thursday to condemn the politically motivated unilateral trial and conviction of JKLF chief Yasin Malik .

Participants called upon the international community to play its role in saving the lives of detained Kashmiri leaders and activists languishing in different Indian prisons.

In state capital Muzaffarabad, Pasban-i-Hurriyat Jammu Kashmir (PHJK), an organisation of post-1989 migrants from occupied Kashmir considered close to Jamaat-i-Islami and Hizbul Mujahideen, held a sit-in in front of the Central Press Club, followed which the participants marched through the bustling Bank Road amid pro-freedom and anti-India chants.

“People of Jammu and Kashmir reject [the] biased [court] proceedings and decisions on fake cases against Muhammad Yasin Malik,” read a large banner they were carrying on the occasion apart from several placards.

Leader of the Opposition in AJK Assembly Chaudhry Latif Akbar, PHJK chief Uzair Ahmed Ghazali and many others addressed the rally in addition to Hizbul Mujahideen supremo Syed Salahuddin who spoke by telephone.

The Kashmiri living on either side of the divide and across the world are unanimous in their rejection of the politically motivated cases against all pro-freedom leaders in general and Yasin Malik in particular, the speakers said.

They pointed out that despite unceasing oppression in occupied Kashmir, not a single Kashmiri had shown even the slightest weakness in his resolve to achieve freedom from India by all means.

They maintained that while India had been shamelessly accusing the incarcerated Kashmiri leadership of terror-funding, the fact remained that India itself was a terrorist state which had turned occupied Kashmir into a living hell for the Kashmiris just because of their demand for internationally acknowledged right to self determination.

They warned that any prejudiced judgment against Mr Malik could leave the entire Kashmiri nation with no option but to collectively resume the armed struggle.

Many also stressed upon the government of Pakistan to take “serious and solid” steps to ensure the safety of the lives of jailed Kashmiri leadership on the one hand and resolution of the core issue on the other.

There should be no trade and other relations with India without settlement of the Kashmir issue in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people, they said.

Separately, a rally was organised by the AJK government from Burhan Wani Chowk to Garhi Pan Chowk on the call of the AJK Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas.

Similar demonstrations were also staged in some other AJK towns as well but ironically neither the premier nor any of his cabinet members were seen attending any of those events to the anger of civil society.

Meanwhile, in a press release,JKLF chief spokesperson Rafiq Dar said that his organization had held worldwide protest rallies outside Indian embassies, particularly in Islamabad, New York, London and Brussels.

Led by JKLF leaders, these rallies were held against undemocratic, unlawful and biased approach of the Indian government and its judiciary towards the incarcerated JKLF chairman who had been charged in fictitious, fabricated, concocted and politically motivated cases by infamous NIA, he said.

Mr Dar said that the rally in Islamabad started from the National Press Club and concluded at D-Chowk adjacent to Diplomatic Enclave in the high security zone of the federal capital and was led by acting JKLF chairman Raja Haqnawaz Khan.

He said the participants castigated the Indian government of maliciously propagating the false news about Mr Malik of having confessed all the terrorism related charges leveled against him.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2022