#KASHMIR IS #INDIA'S #GAZA
Demonstrations in AJK as Indian PM Modi’s visit to IoK observed as 'black day'
APP | AFP | Tariq Naqqash
Published April 24, 2022 - Updated about 3 hours ago
Protesters take part in a demonstration in Muzaffarabad against the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region, April 24. — AFP
A "black day" was observed and anti-India demonstrations were held in Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited occupied Jammu and Kashmir in what was his first visit to the disputed territory since New Delhi revoked special status nearly three years ago.
New Delhi nullified the area's special status in August 2019, when authorities arrested thousands and imposed the world's longest internet shutdown, seeking to forestall local opposition to the move.
Tight security was in place for Modi's appearance at Palli village in Jammu, the Hindu-majority southern part of the territory, which celebrated New Delhi's introduction of direct rule as a defence against Kashmir's freedom movement.
Sunday's event marked Panchayati Raj, a day that commemorates grassroots democracy — although occupied Kashmir has been without an elected regional government since 2018.
There was a complete shutdown in occupied Kashmir, the official Pakistani press agency APP reported. The call for the strike was given by the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference.
In Azad Kashmir, demonstrations were held on the call of AJK Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas yesterday.
Today, a large "black day" protest rally was held in the capital Muzaffarabad and led by AJK minister Khawaja Farooq Ahmed and representatives of other political parties. The rally started from Burhan Wani Chowk and ended at Ghari Pin Chowk. Apart from banners with anti-India and pro-independence slogans, the participants also held black flags and chanted slogans against Modi.
Addressing the participants on the occasion, Khawaja Farooq Ahmed said the protesters wanted to convince the international community through demonstrations that Kashmiris never recognised the Indian occupation and the arrival of a person like Modi — whose "hands are stained with the blood of innocent Kashmiris" — in any part of the territory was a "highly undesirable" thing for them.
He called on the international community, especially the United States and the United Kingdom, to sever their relations with India, as they had done with Russia over the war in Ukraine. He lamented the "double standards" of the international community in the case of Kashmiris.
Ahmed said that the UN and the international community should press India to give Kashmiris their right to self-determination. He said that India-occupied Kashmir was under a continuous curfew in which people's livelihoods were being destroyed under a "premeditated plan" so that they could not raise voices against India.
He also expressed gratitude to the institutions and people of Pakistan for always supporting Kashmiris.
Ahmed said that the day was not far when Kashmiris would become independent and a part of Pakistan.
Mushaal Hussein Malik, the wife of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik, said that Modi's visit was "nothing but a cruel joke with the Kashmiri people", according to APP.
She vowed that the brave people of Kashmir would observe a complete shutdown on Modi's visit to give a clear message to him as well as to the world that Kashmiris would not accept brutal subjugation anymore.
At the end of the rally, prayers were offered for the independence of the occupied territory.
Tight security in Jammu
Indian authorities deployed troops and police personnel across the occupied territory, particularly in the Jammu region, as security measures ahead of Modi’s visit.
According to state-run APP, Indian personnel conducted random checking of vehicles and frisked passengers at checkpoints which mushroomed on the roads of all major cities and towns as well as the Srinagar-Jammu highway.
Indian police and troops used CCTV cameras to keep a watch on the movement of people. Sharpshooters were also deployed at high rise buildings while drone cameras and sniffer dogs were included in service. Indian police seized scores of bikes from different areas of Srinagar.
A "black day" was observed and anti-India demonstrations were held in Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited occupied Jammu and Kashmir in what was his first visit to the disputed territory since New Delhi revoked special status nearly three years ago.
New Delhi nullified the area's special status in August 2019, when authorities arrested thousands and imposed the world's longest internet shutdown, seeking to forestall local opposition to the move.
Tight security was in place for Modi's appearance at Palli village in Jammu, the Hindu-majority southern part of the territory, which celebrated New Delhi's introduction of direct rule as a defence against Kashmir's freedom movement.
Sunday's event marked Panchayati Raj, a day that commemorates grassroots democracy — although occupied Kashmir has been without an elected regional government since 2018.
There was a complete shutdown in occupied Kashmir, the official Pakistani press agency APP reported. The call for the strike was given by the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference.
In Azad Kashmir, demonstrations were held on the call of AJK Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas yesterday.
Today, a large "black day" protest rally was held in the capital Muzaffarabad and led by AJK minister Khawaja Farooq Ahmed and representatives of other political parties. The rally started from Burhan Wani Chowk and ended at Ghari Pin Chowk. Apart from banners with anti-India and pro-independence slogans, the participants also held black flags and chanted slogans against Modi.
Addressing the participants on the occasion, Khawaja Farooq Ahmed said the protesters wanted to convince the international community through demonstrations that Kashmiris never recognised the Indian occupation and the arrival of a person like Modi — whose "hands are stained with the blood of innocent Kashmiris" — in any part of the territory was a "highly undesirable" thing for them.
He called on the international community, especially the United States and the United Kingdom, to sever their relations with India, as they had done with Russia over the war in Ukraine. He lamented the "double standards" of the international community in the case of Kashmiris.
Ahmed said that the UN and the international community should press India to give Kashmiris their right to self-determination. He said that India-occupied Kashmir was under a continuous curfew in which people's livelihoods were being destroyed under a "premeditated plan" so that they could not raise voices against India.
He also expressed gratitude to the institutions and people of Pakistan for always supporting Kashmiris.
Ahmed said that the day was not far when Kashmiris would become independent and a part of Pakistan.
Mushaal Hussein Malik, the wife of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik, said that Modi's visit was "nothing but a cruel joke with the Kashmiri people", according to APP.
She vowed that the brave people of Kashmir would observe a complete shutdown on Modi's visit to give a clear message to him as well as to the world that Kashmiris would not accept brutal subjugation anymore.
At the end of the rally, prayers were offered for the independence of the occupied territory.
Tight security in Jammu
Indian authorities deployed troops and police personnel across the occupied territory, particularly in the Jammu region, as security measures ahead of Modi’s visit.
According to state-run APP, Indian personnel conducted random checking of vehicles and frisked passengers at checkpoints which mushroomed on the roads of all major cities and towns as well as the Srinagar-Jammu highway.
Indian police and troops used CCTV cameras to keep a watch on the movement of people. Sharpshooters were also deployed at high rise buildings while drone cameras and sniffer dogs were included in service. Indian police seized scores of bikes from different areas of Srinagar.
Published April 24, 2022
Azad Kashmir Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas addresses a press conference at the Kashmir House in Islamabad on Saturday. — APP
ISLAMABAD: Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) will observe black day today (Sunday) when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi undertakes his first visit to occupied Kashmir.
This was announced by Azad Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas while speaking at a crowded press conference at the Kashmir House.
This was Tanveer Ilyas’ first press conference in the capital after assuming the office of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir prime minister.
Convener All Parties Hurriyat Conference-Azad Kashmir chapter (APHC) Farooq Rehmani and members of the AJK legislative assembly were also present on the occasion.
Mr Ilyas said protest demonstrations would be held and rallies taken out in Azad Kashmir as well as India-held Kashmir.
Protests, rallies to be taken out in Azad Kashmir, India-held Kashmir
He said Modi could not hoodwink the world by visiting occupied Kashmir in the presence of 800,000 Indian troops.
Terming Modi the ‘biggest terrorist’ and ‘killer of Kashmiris’, the AJK premier said his Hindutva ideology posed a serious threat to peace in the region and beyond, urging the United Nations to play its due role in resolving the lingering Kashmir dispute peacefully.
He said it was high time that the international community, particularly the UN, came forward in a big way to resolve the Kashmir dispute which was the main cause of unrest in the region.
The dire situation in occupied Kashmir merits immediate attention of the United Nations, Mr Ilyas said, adding that Kashmiris wanted the right to self-determination and did not want to be with India.
Referring to the enforced disappearances and killings of youth in fake encounters, the AJK premier said thousands of unmarked mass graves spread all across the territory spoke volumes about the systematic genocide of Kashmiris at the hands of India’s occupation machinery.
“At a time when Kashmiris stand deprived even of the inconsequential rights of governance due to stripping of the special status of their state, when the Indian occupation forces have stepped up the worst ever atrocities, Modi’s visit amounts to rubbing salt into the wounds of Kashmiris,” he said.
In fact, he said, the visit was part of the BJP government’s ploy to hoodwink the international community and create a false impression that “all is well in Kashmir”.
Paying rich tributes to veteran Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Gilani, PM Ilyas said Gilani was the voice of Pakistan.
Speaking on the occasion, Hurriyat leader Mohammad Farooq Rahmani said: “Indian army is killing Kashmiris the way Hitler committed mass killings in Germany and Israel massacred the Palestinians.”
Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2022
ISLAMABAD: Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) will observe black day today (Sunday) when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi undertakes his first visit to occupied Kashmir.
This was announced by Azad Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas while speaking at a crowded press conference at the Kashmir House.
This was Tanveer Ilyas’ first press conference in the capital after assuming the office of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir prime minister.
Convener All Parties Hurriyat Conference-Azad Kashmir chapter (APHC) Farooq Rehmani and members of the AJK legislative assembly were also present on the occasion.
Mr Ilyas said protest demonstrations would be held and rallies taken out in Azad Kashmir as well as India-held Kashmir.
Protests, rallies to be taken out in Azad Kashmir, India-held Kashmir
He said Modi could not hoodwink the world by visiting occupied Kashmir in the presence of 800,000 Indian troops.
Terming Modi the ‘biggest terrorist’ and ‘killer of Kashmiris’, the AJK premier said his Hindutva ideology posed a serious threat to peace in the region and beyond, urging the United Nations to play its due role in resolving the lingering Kashmir dispute peacefully.
He said it was high time that the international community, particularly the UN, came forward in a big way to resolve the Kashmir dispute which was the main cause of unrest in the region.
The dire situation in occupied Kashmir merits immediate attention of the United Nations, Mr Ilyas said, adding that Kashmiris wanted the right to self-determination and did not want to be with India.
Referring to the enforced disappearances and killings of youth in fake encounters, the AJK premier said thousands of unmarked mass graves spread all across the territory spoke volumes about the systematic genocide of Kashmiris at the hands of India’s occupation machinery.
“At a time when Kashmiris stand deprived even of the inconsequential rights of governance due to stripping of the special status of their state, when the Indian occupation forces have stepped up the worst ever atrocities, Modi’s visit amounts to rubbing salt into the wounds of Kashmiris,” he said.
In fact, he said, the visit was part of the BJP government’s ploy to hoodwink the international community and create a false impression that “all is well in Kashmir”.
Paying rich tributes to veteran Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Gilani, PM Ilyas said Gilani was the voice of Pakistan.
Speaking on the occasion, Hurriyat leader Mohammad Farooq Rahmani said: “Indian army is killing Kashmiris the way Hitler committed mass killings in Germany and Israel massacred the Palestinians.”
Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2022
Violence erupts ahead of Modi visit to contested Jammu and Kashmir
Indian paramilitary soldiers walk near site of gunfight at a village near Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, on Friday.
Jammu and Kashmir, administered by India as a union territory, is a bifurcated subregion of the larger Kashmir region contested by Pakistan and India since 1947.
The Muslim-majority territory is separated from the Pakistani-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan by the Line of Control, which serves as an unofficial border along the ceasefire lines from the end of the India-Pakistan War of 1971.
Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, prime minister of the Kashmir region controlled by Pakistan, said during a press conference in Islamabad Saturday Kashmiris on both sides of Line of Control would observe "Black Day" during Modi's visit to Jammu, Pakistan Today reported.
India and Pakistan each typically commemorate an annual "Black Day" in October to remember the start of the conflict over Kashmir in 1947.
Ilyas accused Indian security forces of the "extrajudicial executions" of thousands of Kashmiris and claimed India was settling Hindus in Kashmir to "disturb the ratio of population."
Dilbag Singh, the police chief in the India-controlled Jammu and Kashmir territory, said Friday that a "suicide squad" from the Kashmir-focused Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group had killed at least one security personnel and injured nine others, the Times of India reported.
Jaish-e-Mohammed has been described as a terrorist organization by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, which said such groups "that aspire to be active in Indian-controlled Kashmir remain a concern."
Singh said the group had "planned a major attack" in Jammu ahead of Modi's visit to "sabotage" the event, which was thwarted.
In a separate gunfight, Indian security forces killed four militants in the northern Baramulla district of the Kashmir Valley, police said. Five security personnel were killed during the incident.
Pakistan has accused India of "the worst form of state terrorism" and a "disregard for international human rights and humanitarian laws" during previous "Black Day" commemorations.
Indian paramilitary soldiers walk near site of gunfight at a village near Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, on Friday.
Photo by Farooq Khan/EPA-EFE
April 23 (UPI) -- Violence has erupted near an Indian army base in Jammu ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scheduled visit to the disputed Kashmir region on Sunday, reports said.
Modi is expected to hold his first public rally in Kashmir since 2019, when the government revoked the disputed region's special autonomous status, according to the Spanish news agency EFE.
April 23 (UPI) -- Violence has erupted near an Indian army base in Jammu ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scheduled visit to the disputed Kashmir region on Sunday, reports said.
Modi is expected to hold his first public rally in Kashmir since 2019, when the government revoked the disputed region's special autonomous status, according to the Spanish news agency EFE.
Jammu and Kashmir, administered by India as a union territory, is a bifurcated subregion of the larger Kashmir region contested by Pakistan and India since 1947.
The Muslim-majority territory is separated from the Pakistani-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan by the Line of Control, which serves as an unofficial border along the ceasefire lines from the end of the India-Pakistan War of 1971.
Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, prime minister of the Kashmir region controlled by Pakistan, said during a press conference in Islamabad Saturday Kashmiris on both sides of Line of Control would observe "Black Day" during Modi's visit to Jammu, Pakistan Today reported.
India and Pakistan each typically commemorate an annual "Black Day" in October to remember the start of the conflict over Kashmir in 1947.
Ilyas accused Indian security forces of the "extrajudicial executions" of thousands of Kashmiris and claimed India was settling Hindus in Kashmir to "disturb the ratio of population."
Dilbag Singh, the police chief in the India-controlled Jammu and Kashmir territory, said Friday that a "suicide squad" from the Kashmir-focused Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group had killed at least one security personnel and injured nine others, the Times of India reported.
Jaish-e-Mohammed has been described as a terrorist organization by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, which said such groups "that aspire to be active in Indian-controlled Kashmir remain a concern."
Singh said the group had "planned a major attack" in Jammu ahead of Modi's visit to "sabotage" the event, which was thwarted.
In a separate gunfight, Indian security forces killed four militants in the northern Baramulla district of the Kashmir Valley, police said. Five security personnel were killed during the incident.
Pakistan has accused India of "the worst form of state terrorism" and a "disregard for international human rights and humanitarian laws" during previous "Black Day" commemorations.
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