ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top leadership on Monday reaffirmed unwavering political, diplomatic, and moral support for the people of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir as the nation observed October 27 as Kashmir Black Day to mark the day Indian forces entered Srinagar in 1947.
President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar issued messages, emphasizing the right of the Kashmiri people to self-determination in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions.
President Zardari said Oct. 27, 1947, “marked one of the darkest chapters in modern history” when Indian troops entered Srinagar “in blatant violation of international law.” He said generations of Kashmiris there have “endured unimaginable suffering under occupation, marked by violence, repression and denial of their fundamental rights.”
He noted that “after Aug. 5, 2019, this brutal campaign has only intensified,” referring to India’s revocation of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. “Systematic attempts are being made by Indian authorities to turn the Kashmiris into a minority in their own homeland,” he said, calling on the United Nations and global human rights organizations to “hold India accountable” for human rights violations.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Oct. 27 “marks the darkest day in the history of Kashmir,” adding that for nearly eight decades the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir “have endured enormous hardship and oppression.” He lauded their “indomitable spirit, courage, and resilience in the face of fear and persecution.”
The prime minister said Pakistan’s position on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute “remains clear, consistent and principled,” and that “lasting peace and stability in South Asia will remain elusive without the just and peaceful resolution” of the issue. He assured Kashmiris that “the 240 million people of Pakistan stand resolutely beside them” until “the promise of self-determination, pledged by the international community, is finally fulfilled.”
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said the day serves as a reminder of the “dark events of Oct. 27, 1947, when Indian troops landed in Srinagar to enforce India’s illegal occupation.” He said India has tightened its “grip on the occupied territory through sheer force and repression” in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.
Dar said the human tragedy in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir “has worsened” since India’s actions of Aug. 5, 2019, citing “demographic changes” and “imprisonment of legitimate Kashmiri leadership” as violations of international law. “It is in the shared interest of all regional states and the international community that the dispute be peacefully and urgently resolved,” he added.
He reaffirmed that Pakistan “will continue to raise its voice at every international forum until the realization of Kashmiris’ legitimate right to self-determination.”
