MUZAFFARABAD: The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) is all set to hold its peaceful ‘Peoples’ Freedom March’ towards the Line of Control (LoC) on Friday (today), a JKLF leader said on Thursday.

He warned the administration against removing the pro-independence organisation’s tricolour flags and banners with particular slogans.

Rafiq Dar, central spokesperson for the incarcerated Yasin Malik-led organisation, said in a press release that the march would start from Bhimber — the southernmost district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) — at about 10am on Friday “with Muzaffarabad its first and Srinagar its ultimate destination”.

The march would be joined by people from all the areas along its route to Muzaffarabad, he said, adding that people from Gilgit-Baltistan, all four provinces of Pakistan and different parts of the world would also take part in it.

The JKLF spokesperson maintained that since the main rally and other processions were expected to reach Muzaffarabad late in the evening on Friday, the party had therefore decided to stop them here until next morning.

The march would resume its journey towards the LoC in Chakothi sector — located some 61 kilometres south — on Saturday, he said.

“Our ultimate destination is Srinagar and I hope that the law enforcement agencies on our side would not hinder our peaceful march towards there,” he said.

The JKLF spokesperson said that the first objective of the march was to express solidarity with the people of India-occupied Kashmir who had been besieged by more than one million Indian military and paramilitary troops for the past two months.

“The second objective is to condemn the invasion and atrocities by the Indian government in the occupied territory, and the third and the most important objective is to draw the attention of the international community in general and the UN and big powers in particular towards the need of an urgent, permanent and just solution of the longstanding Kashmir issue,” he added.

Mr Dar said his organisation had already sent letters to the UN Secretary General António Guterres as well as Islamabad based envoys of P5, G8 and other important countries to apprise them not only of the objectives, usefulness and exigency of the peaceful march but also the element of risk attached to it.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2019