APHC urges people to observe August 15 as Black Day
Pro-Pakistan posters, banners appear across Kashmir Valley
Srinagar: The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has urged the people to observe August 15 (Thursday), India’s Independence Day, as Black Day in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, APHC spokesman Advocate Abdul Rashid Minhas, in a statement issued in Srinagar, said that India has no moral right to celebrate its Independence Day as it has held the people and land of Kashmir illegally for over seven decades through military might. He deplored that all basic human rights, civil liberties, local resources, local administration, and economy have been ruthlessly snatched and violated by India in the occupied territory.
The Jammu Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP) leader, Advocate Arshad Iqbal, in a statement issued in Srinagar said that the people of Jammu and Kashmir are not opposed to India’s independence, nor do they have any enmity with it; they only want their political rights to be accepted. They observe August 15 every year as a black day to protest against India, which has stolen their freedom, he said.
He said that the incarcerated chief of the party, Shabir Shah, always used to say that the people of Jammu and Kashmir respect the freedom of every country, but India has deceitfully curbed the freedom of the people of Jammu Kashmir, so they must protest on every August 15 to stress upon New Delhi and the world that they cannot surrender their rights before Indian military might.
The Jammu Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party strongly condemned the arrests and curbs throughout the occupied territory, saying that people are being asked about their identity in their own homeland by those who do not belong to the region, and their houses are being searched and ransacked. All this is done in the name of so-called security, and people are made to remain caged for the whole day till the Indian agents complete their formalities at fixed venues. This shameful military operation in Kashmir is called “Independence Day”.
Meanwhile, pro-Pakistan posters and banners have appeared in the Kashmir Valley on the eve of Pakistan’s Independence Day. Despite the heavy deployment of Indian troops, police personnel, and surveillance cameras, posters have appeared in different areas of the territory reading “14th August – Happy Independence Day”, “We are Pakistanis – Pakistan is ours”, and “15 August as Black Day”.
