In occupied Kashmir, the Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Gilani, has said that the Kashmiri people are pursuing a peaceful movement to achieve their right to self-determination and they will never succumb to the state terrorism unleashed by India to suppress their struggle.
Syed Ali Gilani in a statement in Srinagar strongly condemned the curbs imposed by the occupation authorities on Friday to prevent a march towards Naqashband Sahib.
The Joint Resistance Leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik had called the march to pay tributes to the Kashmiri martyrs particularly those massacred by the troops of Dogra Maharaja on 13th July in 1931.
The APHC Chairman said that India had turned occupied Kashmir into a military garrison. He criticized the Indian authorities for their undemocratic and autocratic approach saying that their tall claims and parroting about being the largest democracy of the world proved hoax and their rhetoric for greater republic stands deflated.
“We are pursuing a movement to achieve our right to self-determination to decide the political destiny of Jammu and Kashmir as guaranteed by the UN.
While pursuing our rightful movement, we have sacrificed our lives, properties worth billions destroyed and damaged, thousands languishing in detention and torture centers, youth killed in custody and buried in unmarked graves, innocents tortured and women assaulted,” Syed Ali Gilani said. He maintained that despite all odds and atrocities, the Kashmiris will never budge even an inch nor will succumb to force or pressure tactics.
Meanwhile, an APHC spokesman in a statement decried the curbs imposed by the authorities to thwart the Naqashband Sahib march. He said that Syed Ali Gilani who continued to be under house arrest, tried to march towards Naqashband Sahib to pay tributes to martyrs of 13 July but the Indian forces’ personnel deployed outside his residence prevented him from moving ahead.
He denounced the authorities for putting Hurriyat leaders including Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, Ghulam Nabi Sumjhi, Muhammad Ashraf Laya and Umar Aadil Dar under house arrest or in custody. He said that the Indian police denied the families members of Muhammad Yasin Malik and Umar Aadil Dar to meet them in Kothibagh Police Station.
On the other hand, Syed Ali Gilani and Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai expressed deep grief over the demise of Ghulam Muhammad Sofi, father of senior pro-freedom leader, Mukhtar Ahmed Sofi, saying that the deceased was a pious person, eminent businessman, and social and political activist. An APHC delegation visited Islamabad town and expressed solidarity with the bereaved family.
