ISLAMABAD, Jan 5 /DNA/ – “The Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) has always been a story of tyranny, oppression, and siege,” said Mr Shehryar Khan Afridi, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir. He was speaking at an event organized by the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) here Wednesday to commemorate the Kashmir Self-Determination Day. The day is observed to commemorate the adoption of the United Nations Commission on India and Pakistan (UNCIP) Resolution on the accession of the Kashmir to either Pakistan or India through a free and impartial plebiscite.

The Chairman of the Kashmir Committee called for greater involvement of the youth through interactive sessions in universities to counter the influence of the hybrid warfare waged against Pakistan by India through social media. Responding to a question, Mr Afridi shared that Kashmiris were part of all important meetings and decisions of the Kashmir Committee. He termed the Indian government’s actions following the unilateral revocation of Articles 370 and 35-A of its Constitution related to Kashmir as war crimes and urged the international community to take note of the Indian brutalities in IIOJK since August 5, 2019. Mr Afridi also urged the Pakistani diasporas abroad to play their role as leaders for the Kashmir cause and get themselves heard on the right forums in their countries of residence. 

Pakistan’s former High Commissioner to India Ambassador Abdul Basit said that India was trying to convert the narrative about the freedom struggle in Kashmir into one about a secessionist movement. He added that Kashmiris were fighting against an occupation akin to a colonialism and had the right to use all means necessary for winning freedom. Ambassador Abdul Basit attributed the international silence about Kashmir to its Indian projection as its internal matter. He added, however, that IIOJK was never an internal matter of India and that India had itself acknowledged its status as an international dispute by taking the matter to the United Nations Security Council. 

Senior Vice President of Kashmir Youth Alliance Mr Taha Muneeb emphasized that Kashmiris had never accepted Indian occupation and no amount of development expenditure of the Indian government in Kashmir could change that. He added that the freedom struggle in Kashmir was indigenous and had produced several well-known Kashmiri freedom fighters. Mr Muneeb shared that 171 Kashmiris had been martyred by the Indian security forces in the year 2021 out of which 37 were martyred in the month of December alone.

President IRS Ambassador Nadeem Riyaz highlighted the importance of observance of the Kashmir Self Determination Day on August 5 to mark the adoption of the resolution for free and impartial plebiscite for self-determination of the Kashmiris by the UNCIP.