Kashmiris observe India’s Independence Day as Black Day
#August15BlackDay #StandWithKashmiris
Srinagar: Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control and across the world are marking India’s Independence Day, today, as Black Day to register their protest against New Delhi’s illegal occupation of their homeland.
According to Kashmir Media Service, anti-India demonstrations are being held worldwide by the Kashmiris to draw attention to the Indian atrocities in the occupied territory.
The All Parties Hurriyat Conference spokesperson Advocate Abdul Rashid Minhas in a statement in Srinagar said India has no moral or legal right to celebrate its Independence Day in IIOJK as it is holding the territory against the will of the Kashmiri people.
He said that India’s Independence Day is observed as a Black Day by the Kashmiris, as Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognized disputed territory. He recalled that India forcibly occupied a large part of Jammu and Kashmir 78 years ago and has since unleashed relentless oppression on its people for demanding freedom and the right to self-determination.
He said India is celebrating its freedom while killing Kashmiris for demanding the same. He said India is not a democracy at all, but a completely aggressive and usurping state that has turned the occupied territory into a garrison where over 500,000 Kashmiris have been mercilessly killed since 1947.
Minhas noted that while New Delhi marks its freedom from Britain, it shamelessly denies the same to the IIOJK people. He said the Modi regime’s August 2019 revocation of IIOJK’s special status was yet another blatant act of aggression aimed at changing the demographic composition of the territory to turn its Muslim majority into a minority.
He stressed that, inspired by the spirit of freedom, Kashmiris are resolutely countering all of India’s conspiracies, and are resolute to carry the mission of their martyrs to its logical end. He added that accession to Pakistan remains the Kashmiri people’s long-cherished dream, — a dream that will one day become a reality.
Meanwhile, Jammu Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party spokesman Advocate Arshad Iqbal in a statement issued in Srinagar said Kashmiris on both sides of the ceasefire line and the world over are observing India’s independence day as Black Day to register their protest against India’s forcible occupation of their motherland.
The DFP, terming India a usurper, said the country that has deprived lakhs of Kashmiris of their fundamental rights and snatched their freedom by occupying their motherland has no justification whatsoever to celebrate its Independence Day.
Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Alliance spokesperson Sajjad Mir in a statement issued in Srinagar said August 15, Indian Independence Day, is a day of remembrance of sorrow, suffering and sacrifices for the Kashmiri people. He said India has been illegally occupying Jammu and Kashmir since 1947 and has deprived the Kashmiri people of their birthright to self-determination.
He lamented that for the past several decades, the Indian forces had been carrying out extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, custodial torture and restrictions on freedom of expression in the valley.
