ISLAMABAD -UNS:President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday reaffirmed Pakistan’s unwavering support for the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) in their struggle for the right to self-determination.
Every year on October 27, Pakistanis and Kashmiri people around the world mark Black Day to remember and protest the entry of Indian military forces into Jammu and Kashmir in 1947.
In their separate messages issued on the occasion of Kashmir Black Day, both leaders called on the international community to take tangible steps toward the peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, in accordance with United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.
President Zardari called on the United Nations, global human rights bodies, and the international community to hold India accountable for grave and systematic human rights violations in IIOJK.
He emphasised that lasting peace and stability in South Asia depend on a just and durable settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, urging renewed international attention to the issue.
“On its part, Pakistan will continue its unwavering moral, diplomatic, and political support to the people of IIOJK who continue to endure oppression on daily basis. We stand united with our Kashmiri brethren in their struggle for justice, peace and self-determination,” President Secretariat Press Wing, in a press release, quoted the president as saying.
On this day in 1947, he said, Indian forces entered Srinagar in blatant violation of international law, moral principles, and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.
Since then, generations of innocent men, women, and children in IIOJK had endured unimaginable suffering under occupation, marked by violence, repression, and denial of their fundamental rights, he added.
“Every year, we observe this day as Kashmir Black Day to honour the valiant struggle and sacrifices of our Kashmiri brothers and sisters who continue to resist tyranny in their pursuit of the inalienable right to self-determination. Despite decades of Indian brutality, the spirit of resistance among the Kashmiri people remains unbroken,” the president reiterated.
After August 5, 2019, President Zardari further said this brutal campaign had only intensified, adding India had unilaterally revoked occupied Kashmir’s special status, imposing a military siege, destroying properties of Kashmiris to inflict ‘collective punishment’ and enforcing draconian laws that strip the Kashmiri people of their fundamental freedoms.
