Like other parts of Pakistan and the globe, Kashmir Solidarity Day was observed in Lahore on Thursday with various parties, organisations and institutions holding rallies and meetings calling to resolve the Kashmir dispute as per UN resolutions and in accordance with the wishes of the people of occupied Kashmir.
Thousands of people took part in the rallies, meetings and seminars held under the aegis of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Kashmir Centre, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Nazria-e-Pakistan Trust (NPT) and Pakistan Workers Trust (PWT), Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP), Tanzeem Mashaikh-e-Uzzam (TMUP), Pakistan Sunni Tehreek (PST) and other institutions and parties in various localities of the metropolitan.
The participants of the rallies and meetings expressed great enthusiasm and firm resolve to continue political and moral support for the Kashmiris till they win their freedom.
They were also carrying flags, banners and placards inscribed with various slogans in favour of freedom movement of people of Indian-occupied Kashmir (IOK), and also chanting full-throat slogans of libration of Kashmiris from Indian clutches and condemned the Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir.
The speakers including politicians, religious scholars, intellectuals, lawyer community and prominent figures from various walks of life highlighted the Kashmir dispute and called from its early resolution.
HAFIZ SAEED WANTS PM TO CALL OIC SUMMIT TO RESOLVE KASHMIR ISSUE:
While addressing a grand protest rally at the High Court Chowk in connection with the Kashmir Solidarity Day, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) Ameer Hafiz Muhammad Saeed urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to immediately call a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in Islamabad to resolve Kashmir issue.
The leaders of all major political and religious parties attended the protest rally organised by JuD.
“We are Kashmiris and Kashmir is ours; our religion binds us as one nation and we will always continue our moral support to our brothers oppressed by the brutality of Indian forces in Kashmir,” said the JuD ameer.
Saeed termed the Indian foreign minister’s visit to China a conspiracy against the independence of Kashmir, saying India was ready to accept all demands of China just for its support in the United Nations against the parties who were raising voice for the independence of Kashmir. He said that China was Pakistan’s friend but our government also needs to understand these conspiracies.
He demanded of the prime minister to summon a conference of OIC in Islamabad on the issue of Kashmir. He said that there was no room left for back-channel diplomacy with India.
He said that Pakistan was the biggest attorney of Kashmir’s oppressed nation therefore, it should boycott the United Nations (UN), if it did not cooperate in resolving the Kashmir issue. He said that Pakistan fought the war against terrorism for America, provided its air space, airports and roads for thirteen years but now President Barack Obama had declared India its main partner and friend in the region.
The JuD chief said Pakistan should strengthen its ties with China and Muslims countries because China had never deceived Pakistan whereas America always did. He said America threatened Pakistan of surgical strikes but they would never dare to do it.
Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Deputy General Secretary Maulana Amjad Khan in his address laid stress on the unity of Muslim countries.
Tehreek Hurmat-e-Rasool General Secretary Maulana Amir Hamza, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Arshad Sahi and a large number of other political and religious parties’ leaders also addressed the protest rally.
KHOSA REMINDS UN OF ITS RESOLUTIONS ON KASHMIR:
Speakers at a rally organised by Kashmir Centre Lahore (KCL) in front of Punjab Assembly said that Pakistan has always been extending moral, political and diplomatic support to the people of IOK, besides flashing this core issue to the world community for its early settlement in accordance with the aspirations of Kashmiris.
The rally was attended by former Punjab Governor Sardar Latif Khosa, PPP Punjab Additional Secretary General Ghulam Mohiyuddin Dewan, KCL in-charge Inamul Hassan Kashmiri, PML-N Azad Kashmir President Raja Shahzad Ahmed, PPP AJK President Dr Ahsan Masood, Muslim Conference Lahore’s convenor Haji Iqbal Qureshi, All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leader Engineer Mushtaq Mahmood and a large number of prominent religious and other scholars.
Latif Khosa said that United Nations Organisation (UNO) and international community had promised to ensure provision of self-determination right to Kashmiris in 1948, but that promise had not fulfiled yet. India had since long been resorting to sheer violation of human rights in the IOK and ignored all the UN Security Council’s resolutions in this regard and was now eying the membership of the UNSC, which was impossible, he added.
Khosa said, though Kashmir dispute was very old, the Kashmiris must not lose confidence as they would succeed to achieve freedom from the India yoke.
Dewan said that India must not think of suppressing the Kashmir cause, citing, Kashmiris had been keeping their freedom movement alive by rendering supreme sacrifices for about one-third of a century and they would manage to give a logical end this great movement.
