MUZAFFARABAD: A large number of people took to streets in different parts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Thursday to decry India’s sham democracy amidst its blatant denial of the internationally acknowledged right to self-determination to the Kashmiris.

The rallies and demonstrations were held on the occasion of India’s 74th Republic Day, which Kashmiris have always observed as ‘black day’.

“The nations that buy India’s claim of being the “biggest democracy” should review their opinion as soon as possible because India has brazenly usurped Kashmiris’ inalienable Right to Self Determination as well as their right to freedom of expression and movement. That’s why Jan 26 is another Dark Day for [the] Kashmiris,” said AJK Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas in an early morning tweet on the ‘black day.’

In Muzaffarabad, a big rally was taken out under the aegis of Pasban-i-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir (PHJK), an organisation of post-1989 migrants from occupied Kashmir, in collaboration with AJK government’s Kashmir Liberation Commission.

The rally marched through the main road from Burhan Wani Chowk to Ghari Pan Chowk, with its participants holding banners, placards, black flags and chanting anti-India and pro-freedom slogans.

Earlier, while speaking to participants at Burhan Wani Chowk, leaders and representatives of various parties paid rich tributes to the struggling Kashmiris across the divide and called upon the United Nations to fulfil its commitment of holding a free, fair and impartial plebiscite in the occupied territory.

They maintained that anti-India gatherings of Kashmiris were ample proof of the fact that abhorrence of India and preference for freedom from its occupation prevailed on both sides of the divide with equal strength.

Separately, talking to the reporters, the occupied Kashmir born PHJK chief Uzair Ahmed Ghazali said India had employed every known stratagem to quell the quest of Kashmiris for freedom, but in vain.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2023