DNA

OTTAWA: Pakistan High Commission Canada along with the Pakistan Consulates in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal arranged a series of events comprising pictorial exhibitions, demonstrations, and roadshows to mark the Kashmir Solidarity Day.

The main event was held at the Pakistan High Commission in Ottawa where *High Commissioner Zaheer A. Janjua* addressed a gathering of Pakistani and Kashmiri diaspora on the significance of Kashmir Solidarity Day. He pointed out that the Jammu and Kashmir was one of the oldest, internationally recognized disputes on the agenda of the UN Security Council. He said there were 11 UN resolutions on this issue, but India had consistently blocked all efforts for holding a free, fair and impartial plebiscite in IIOJK as enshrined in the UN resolutions.

The High Commissioner also highlighted the woes and suffering of the Kashmiris following the illegal and unilateral Indian actions of 5th August 2019. He said that India’s ruling BJP was implementing the Hindutva agenda of RSS in Kashmir by assaulting the Kashmiri culture and identity. He said the Kashmiris were being disempowered, disenfranchised and being turned into a minority in their own land through new state and federal laws, domicile rules, delimitations of constituencies, grant of domicile status to non-Kashmiri Hindus, seizure of Jammu & Kashmir Waqf Board and forcible singing of Hindu hymns at schools.

Zaheer Janjua maintained that the BJP government of India had demonstrated that its Hindutva-inspired political tendencies and actions not only threaten Kashmir’s political identity and historical legacy, but also pose a danger to regional peace and a global order based on international norms of choice and freedom. “We believe that durable peace, security and development in the region hinges on peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute … it is imperative that the Kashmiris exercise their right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations,” he s  aid, adding Pakistan would continue to extend all possible support to our Kashmiri brothers and sisters towards a just and peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolutions.

Later, a pictorial exhibition was arranged at the High Commission to bring out the range of various atrocities and reign of terror unleashed by the Indian forces against the defenceless Kashmiris, particularly after the revocation of special status of IIOJK in August 2019. The recently released BBC documentary on

Earlier in the day, office-bearers and members of Kashmir Committee Ottawa arranged a protest demonstration in front of the Canadian Parliament. Braving the freezing temperature touching minus 30 during the day in Ottawa, the protestors raised placards and chanted slogans calling for an end to Indian brutalities in the occupied Kashmir, and calling on the government and the people of Canada to support the just demand of the Kashmiris for their inalienable right to self-determination.

Meanwhile, Consulate General of Pakistan Toronto arranged a pictorial exhibition as well as a well-attended webinar to highlight Indian oppression in IIOJK. A truck exhibiting different themes of Kashmir Solidarity Day through giant electronic screens installed on all sides of the trailer also drove through the city. Similarly, in Vancouver a pictorial exhibition and two separate webinars were arranged by the Consulate General of Pakistan. Local ethnic television and radio channels, including Toronto 360 TV, Canada One TV and eawaz, also ran dedicated programmes and documentaries highlighting the human rights abuses in IIOJK.