MIRPUR: Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control and across the world are observing the Indian Republic Day, as Black Day on Thursday (today).
According to KMS, call for observance of the ‘Black Day’ has been given by the joint resistance leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik to convey to the world that India had denied the people of Jammu and Kashmir their inalienable right to self-determination.
The day is being marked with a complete strike in occupied Kashmir and anti-India demonstrations and rallies in the world capitals. Syed Ali Gilani, Muhammad Yasin Malik and other Hurriyet leaders including Aasiya Andrabi, Yasmeen Raja, Nayeem Ahmed Khan and Zafar Akbar Butt in their separate statements in Srinagar said India had no constitutional, legal or moral justification to celebrate its Republic Day in Jammu and Kashmir as it was illegally occupying the territory against the will of the Kashmiri people.
They said every year, January 26 brought miseries to the people of occupied Kashmir who faced frisking, checking and searches in the name of so-called security measures. They appealed to the people and students to boycott all the Republic Day functions.
The APHC leaders, Shabbir Ahmed Shah and Farida Bahenji and Jamaat-e-Islami of the occupied territory in their statements strongly denounced the awarding of death sentence to a Kashmiri youth, Muzaffar Ahmed Rather, by an Indian court.
On the other hand, Indian troops, in their fresh acts of state terrorism, martyred three more Kashmiri youth during the siege and search operations at Hadoora in Ganderbal and in Sunderbani area of Rajouri. Hurriyet leaders, Muhammad Yousuf Naqash, Shabbir Ahmed Dar, Muhammad Iqbal Mir, Muhammad Ahsan Untoo and Feroz Ahmed Khan in their statements in Srinagar paid tributes to the martyred youth.
They said the Kashmiri martyrs’ sacrifices, which had centre-staged the Kashmir dispute at the global level would not be allowed to go waste and their mission would be taken to its logical conclusion at all costs.
Meanwhile, Indian Army launched a crackdown operation at Teliyan Mohalla in Arampora area of Sopore town. Indian police during house raids arrested Hurriyet leaders and activists including Muhammad Yasin Attai, Syed Imtiyaz Haider and Bashir Ahmed Butt in Budgam.