MIRPUR:People from all three districts in the largest Mirpur division of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as members of the civil society at large, observed Indian Republic Day on Friday as Black Day, expressing strong antipathy towards India and calling for the early granting of the right to self-determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, who have been denied it for the past 76 years due to India’s unlawful occupation of the region with its military might.
Protest marches in the districts of Mirpur, Kotli, and Bhimber were preceded by massive anti-Indian demonstrations by a wide range of civil society participants.
To commemorate January 26, “India’s Yome Jamuria,” or Black Day, civil society organized a large-scale protest rally in lakefront Mirpur. They worked with the district government, attorneys, merchants, social and political activists, and district court premises to reach Chowk Shaheedan.
Deputy Commissioner Mirpur Ch Yasir Riaz, Chairman of the National Events Organizing Committee; SSP Kamran A
li; Tehsildar Ch. Imran Yousaf; Trade union leaders Tariq Mallick and Raja Rasheed; and Secretary General of the District Bar Association Fazal e Raziq The main Black Day rally was organized by advocates and leaders of several social and political organizations. It began at the District Court’s compound, traveled through the main city streets, and ended at Shaheed Chowk in the middle of the city.
Participants screamed anti-Indian slogans against India and Indian occupation forces for committing enormous human rights violations in the bloody valley of IIOJK while sporting black bands around their arms. In addition to raising protest against the ongoing forcible and unlawful Indian occupation of a significant portion of Jammu and Kashmir state, elders from all facets of civil society in Mirpur underlined the significance of an early peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute.
Speakers at the demonstration at Shaheed Chowk urged the international community to ensure a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispu
te in line with UN resolutions and the demands of the Kashmiri people. They declared that the people of Jammu and Kashmir will keep up their fight till they were freed from the illegitimate Indian occupation of occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Speakers lavished praise on the brave, hard-pressed people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir for having to endure widespread Indian crimes in the region they controlled. They maintained that the heroic sacrifices made by the Kashmiri people would not be in vain and that a successful outcome to their battle was imminent.
Protests against the inhumane attitude and ongoing large-scale violations of human rights by Indian forces in the held state, where people are continuing their indigenous struggle for the achievement of their birthright of self determination and for the freedom of the motherland from Indian clutches, were organized by a variety of political, religious, social, and human rights organizations. These rallies and demonstrations were held in Mirpur, Kotli, and Bhi
mbher districts.