APHC pays tribute to Sofi Muhammad Akbar on 38th death anniversary
Srinagar: The All Parties Hurriyat Conference has paid glowing tributes to noted Hurriyat leader and founding member of Jammu and Kashmir Mahaz-e-Azadi, Sofi Muhammad Akbar, on his 38th death anniversary in Sopore.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Sofi Muhammad Akbar passed away on this day in 1987 at his hometown, Sopore, in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The APHC spokesman, Advocate Abdul Rashid Minhas, in a statement issued in Srinagar, said that Sofi Akbar was a selfless leader who remained committed, till his death, to the cause of Kashmiris’ right to self-determination promised to them by the United Nations for the oppressed people of Jammu and Kashmir.
The spokesman reiterated the Kashmiris’ resolve to continue the leader’s mission with full vigour and valour until its logical conclusion. The APHC said that India is subjecting Hurriyat leaders, media persons, ulema, rights activists, and even ordinary youth and women to illegal arrests in fabricated cases to suppress their demand for the right to self-determination.
The BJP regime, he added, is deliberately prolonging the illegal detention of Kashmiri prisoners under draconian laws such as the PSA and UAPA to force them into submission for their political beliefs, while denying space to the Hurriyat leadership by arresting its leaders on false charges.
The APHC stated that the continued denial of Kashmiris’ political rights by India could endanger peace in South Asia.
The statement, while rejecting India’s normalcy mantra in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, asked why New Delhi has converted the territory into an open-air prison, citing continued cordon-and-search operations and house raids in Srinagar and other parts of the territory by Indian forces under the draconian law, AFSPA.
