Everyday under Indian occupation black day for Kashmiris: Maleeha

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to UN on Kashmir Black Day Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi on Friday said every day under Indian occupation was a black day for the Kashmiri people.

“As we observe black day to mark the illegal Indian occupation of Jammu and Kashmir seventy years ago, we should remember that every day under occupation is a black day for the Kashmiri people. For them, this darkness can only end by an end to occupation,” she said in a message on the Black Day expressing remorse over Kashmiris’ plight.

October 27 is the darkest day in the history of Jammu and Kashmir and the Kashmiris living on both sides of the Line of Control and across the world observe it as Black Day. This is the day, when, in 1947, India sent its armed forces to Jammu and Kashmir and occupied it in total violation of the Indian Independence Act and Partition Plan and against the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

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October 27 had become a somber milestone in the unremitting tale of pain and suffering of generations of Kashmiri men, women and children, she said.

She said the Indian occupation of Jammu and Kashmir was not only a travesty of justice and legality, it was also a betrayal of the legitimate right of the Kashmiri people to determine their own destiny.

“A number of UN Security Council resolutions have promised the Kashmiris their right to self-determination. Despite Indian attempts at obfuscation, diversion and deceit, these resolutions are neither dated nor irrelevant, for law has no expiry date; morality has no sell-by date,” said the Pakistan’s representative.

She said the Kashmiris had waged a heroic and popular struggle to rid themselves of Indian occupation. India had used massive and indiscriminate force to suppress this indigenous freedom struggle. Hundreds of innocent Kashmiris had been martyred in the recent wave of protests; countless others had been blinded and maimed through shotgun pellets, in what had rightly been described as the first ‘mass blinding’ in human history, she added.

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Maleeha said yet, the Kashmiris remain resolute in their demand for freedom. Under the shadow of bayonets, they hold a plebiscite every day, demanding that India leave Jammu and Kashmir, she said.

“The International community must hold India accountable for the grave human rights violations in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan has called on the UN Secretary General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to send an inquiry commission to occupied Kashmir to verify the nature and extent of India’s human rights violations, secure the punishment of those responsible and provide justice and relief to the victims. This is a call for action that is both imperative as well as urgent,” she said.

She said the people of Pakistan would continue to extend political, diplomatic and moral support to the legitimate cause of the Kashmiri people. A peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions was also a pre-requisite for lasting peace and stability in South Asia, she said.