Kashmir issue to take centre stage at Islamabad on India’s Republic Day
Islamabad: Kashmiri groups and political leaders will observe India’s Republic Day as a Black Day on Monday, with a seminar planned in Islamabad to highlight the situation in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir and the human rights situation in the region.
The event will be jointly organised by the Kashmir Institute of International Relations, Friends of Kashmir, and the Parliamentary Kashmir Committee at the Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (PIPS) auditorium.
Organisers said the seminar aims to draw attention to what they describe as rights violations in IIOJK and to reiterate calls for international engagement on the long-standing dispute.
The speakers are expected to include Rana Qasim Noon, chairman of the Parliamentary Kashmir Committee; former federal minister Qamar Zaman Kaira; Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed; and former Azad Jammu and Kashmir prime minister Sardar Atiq Ahmed Khan.
Other participants scheduled to address the seminar include Shah Ghulam Qadir, head of the Pakistan Muslim League-N in Azad Jammu and Kashmir; National Assembly member Sher Afzal Marwat; former AJK minister Farzana Yaqoob; and AJK government minister Javed Ayub, among others.
