Unanimous PA resolution slams India’s move to revoke occupied Kashmir’s special status

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While leaving aside their mutual serious political differences, the treasury and opposition sides of the Sindh Assembly on Monday showed complete unanimity of views in expressing solidarity with the oppressed Kashmiri people by passing a resolution against the Indian’s government latest move to scrap the special autonomous status given to the occupied Kashmir as enshrined in India’s constitution.The resolution unanimously passed by the provincial assembly stated: “This House condemns the act of Government of India to amend Article 370 of the Indian Constitution which grants special autonomous constitutional status to the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and does recommend to the provincial government to recommend the views of this assembly to the Federal Government to oppose this action of the Indian government by urging the international community including the United Nations and Muslim Ummah to take serious note of these nefarious Indian moves in Jammu and Kashmir which is a recognized disputed territory.“This move has been designed to deprive Kashmiris of their rights including their invaluable right to self-determination and bring demographic changes by converting the Muslim majority into a minority.“This House further condemns current Indian atrocities against innocent Kashmiri men, women, and children which include the use of illegal weapons and the multiple violations of the LoC and the violation of the international boundaries between India and Pakistan.”Sindh Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla and other lawmakers read out the resolution in the house.The resolution was supported by lawmakers of all the parliamentary parties in the house, including the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, Grand Democratic Alliance, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal.Speaking on the resolution, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that India had been treading on a very dangerous path. He said that it was Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who had raised the demand for calling a joint session of the parliament on the Kashmir problem.“Whatever is happening in Kashmir is because of the reason that we stand divided here. We have been attacked upon because of the reason that we stand divided,” he said.Shah said that the United Nations and the international community should take cognizance of the situation evolving in Kashmir.“If in case it is true that recent decisions of the Indian government are popular steps, then for what cause the entire leadership of the occupied Kashmir have been arrested.”The chief minister said India claimed that it was the world’s biggest democracy but its recent steps were oppressive and cruel in nature.He said that they fully supported the resolution presented in the house to condemn the Indian atrocities and excesses being committed in the occupied Kashmir.He said that use of cluster munitions by the Indian army from across the Line of Control had been a highly cruel and blatant act of aggression against innocent Kashmiris. He said that the entire Pakistani nation stood united against India’s unjust move against Kashmiri brethren. He said that India had to pay the price of its unjust actions in the occupied Kashmir.GDA lawmaker Nusrat Seher Abbasi said that the world community should wake up to the alarming situation developing in Kashmir where innocent children were being martyred.PPP’s Shamim Mumtaz said that every child in Kashmir had been actively taking part in the struggle to get their native land liberated. She said that over 100,000 innocent civilians had so far lost their lives in the Indian-held Kashmir. He said the people in Kashmir had been showing their love for Pakistan despite the deployment of over 500,000 Indian troops in the occupied territory.Anti-India protestsActivists of various religious and political parties on Monday took out rallies, held demonstrations and burnt Indian flags in various parts of the city against the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution and the geographical division of the Indian-occupied Kashmir and to express solidarity with the Kashmiri brethren.Articles 370 and 35A empowers the Jammu and Kashmir state's legislature to define “permanent residents” and provide them special rights and privileges. At the rallies, the speakers urged the United Nations (UN) to take immediate notice against the change in the occupied territory because of the amendments made by the Indian government in its constitution were against the international law and resolutions of the UN.PTI’s promiseOn the call of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) Sindh chapter president Haleem Adil Sheikh, the party on Monday organsied protest rallies in Karachi, Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Kambar-Shahdadkot, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Thatta, Umerkot, Shaheed Benazirabad, Kunri and other cities and towns to express solidarity with their brethren in IoK.The PTI leaders said every child in Pakistan supports the Kashmiri people and every Pakistani is a soldier of the Pakistan Army. They said presently India was busy in atrocities in occupied Kashmir, adding that they said they would not leave the Kashmiri people alone and they were ready to render every sacrifice for them.They demanded the UN to give the right of plebiscite to the Kashmiri people, and strongly condemned the use of cluster bombs by the Indian Army at the Line of Control.KUJ flays IndiaThe Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ) had strongly condemned Indian forces atrocities in the held-Kashmir, struggle for the right of their self-determination for seven decades, and stripping them of their basic rights by shutting down their tools of expression.Reacting to the recently scaled up attacks on the basic rights of people in occupied Kashmir, the KUJ in a statement said that shutting down internet access for the people in held-Kashmir was the worst part of the ongoing suppressive tactics of the occupied forces.The KUJ expressed deep concern over a complete lockdown and deployment of thousands more army personnel in the valley which was already one of the most militarised places in the world.“We are very much perturbed over snatching the Kashmiri people right to express and communicate. This is our prime concern,” said Ashraf Khan, the president of the KUJ. He said that India was trying in vain to obliterate annals of history, which convincingly established that Kashmir enjoyed its Independence state status for millenniums since the arrival of Alexander the Great in the region.Conspiracies of annexing Kashmir with India were even foiled by Maharaja Pratap Singh back in 1891, when the then viceroy Lord Landsdowne of British India treacherously thought of annexing Kashmir.“India should learn a lesson from the history and it must refrain from exercising coercive action in its occupied territory of Kashmir,” said Ahmed Khan Malik, the secretary general of the KUJ.PPP holds rally todayThe Pakistan Peoples Party announced that they would hold a protest rally today outside the Karachi Press Club to show their anger over Indian aggression and to end the Indian occupation of the valley. According to a press release, leaders from district and provincial assembly organisations and elected parliamentarians would attend the protest rally.MQM-P stages ralliesThe Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan on Monday organised rallies under the title of ‘Justice for Kashimiris’, which gathered at Bahadurabad’s Char Minar where central leaders of the party said India wanted to create chaos in the region by scrapping Article 370.The MQM-P’ s deputy convener and federal minister, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, central leaders Amir Khan, Kunwar Naveed Jamil and MNA Syed Aminul Haq, Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar and Faisal Sabzwari addressed the participants and condemned the Indian government’s actions. They said that Pakistan and its people would continue supporting the Kashmiri people diplomatically, and warned India not to mistake Pakistan’s peaceful stance as a sign of weakness.“Pakistan’s independence is incomplete without independence of Kashmir,” said Siddiqui. He said that the Indian government should not consider the struggle for freedom a joke. He said that India now had a fundamentalist and frenzy government, which had closed doors of talks for the Kashmiri people.TLPThe Tehreek-e-Labbiak Pakistan also held rallies to express solidarity with the Kashmiri people and to condemn the Indian government’s illegal steps.According to a press release, the party organised protest rallies in all six districts of the city. In District South, the TLP district chief, Kashif Qadri, led a rally from the Chutan Shah Mazar to the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi. In District East, district head Shakir Chunay led a rally from the Civic Centre to the Mazar-e-Quaid. In District Korangi, a rally was taken out from the Babar Market to Korangi Crossing. In District Malir, a rally was carried out from Cattle Colony to Kalaboard.The leaders said that the party supremo Allama Khadim Hussain said in the past that Kashmir issue could not be resolved through resolutions. They said that Pakistan had shown diplomatic weakness.JI condemns ‘illegal steps’The Jamaat-e-Islami on Monday staged a demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club and strongly condemned the illegal steps taken by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the India Occupied Kashmir (IoK).The demonstration was led by JI Karachi Ameer Hafiz Naim-ur-Rehman and the JI workers chanted slogans against Modi and appreciated the gesture of the government of Pakistan.The workers were holding banners and placards against the Indian government and demanded the Pakistan government to take the issue at the international level. They burnt the Indian flags and demanded the United Nations to intervene and stop the gross human rights violations.The JI chief said they would never allow Modi to weaken the special rights of residents in IoK amid heavy deployment of security forces and suspension of telephone and internet services. He said they had rejected the move taken by the Indian government and emphasised that Iok was internationally recognised as a disputed territory.HRCP slams IndiaThe Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) is deeply alarmed at the decision by the Indian government to revoke the special constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir.“The increased deployment of troops and curfew-like restrictions on citizens are ominous signs of what may come. This could have grave repercussions for Kashmiri citizens on both sides of the Line of Control (LOC), should the escalation turn into armed conflict,” it said in a statement.“The recent increase in exchange of fire along the LOC and the rise in casualties, especially with the use of cluster bombs, whose victims reportedly include children, is a matter of grave concern.”With the gathering storm, the physical security and fundamental rights of Kashmiri citizens on both sides of the border are at stake, the HRCP said, adding that their safety and rights must not be barefacedly trampled.Indeed, the need for regional peace and stability has never been greater, and the international human rights community, too, must add its voice to those pleading for restraint and for saner voice to prevail, the rights body said.

from The News International - Karachi https://ift.tt/2yFh1Hx
The News International - Karachi