MUZAFFARABAD: Protest demonstrations were held in different parts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Friday to mark India’s so-called ‘Republic Day’ as black day and condemn its unparalleled atrocities on the freedom seeking Kashmiris amid perpetual denial of their internationally acknowledged right to self-determination.

Participants of these events were wearing black armbands, holding blag flags and black balloons in addition to banners and placards inscribed with anti-India and pro-freedom slogans.

They not only condemned Indian army’s atrocities in occupied Kashmir but also the incessant attacks of Hindu extremist organizations on Indian Muslims with full official backing.

In Muzaffarabad, a demonstration was held at Burhan Wani Shaheed Chowk which was followed by a rally under the aegis of non-governmental Pasban-e-Hurriyat Jammu Kashmir (PHJK).

At the conclusion of the rally in Garhipan Chowk, the demonstrators torched a banner whereupon the portraits of four Indian leaders - Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and national security advisor Ajit Doval - were printed.

“India’s claims of being a democracy are just an eyewash. In fact, political, religious, social and all other human rights of the inhabitants of occupied Kashmir as well as of the Muslim, Sikh and Christian minorities of India are being brutally suppressed by the fanatic Indian governments,” said PHJK chief Uzair Ahmed Ghazali on the occasion.

Meanwhile, several Kashmiri leaders took to different social media platforms to condemn India’s fake claims of being a democratic and secular state.

“How can a country claim itself to be the largest and secular democracy […] when it has brazenly usurped the right to self-determination of an entire nation inhabiting the internationally acknowledged disputed territory of Jammu & Kashmir and when all of its institutions remorselessly suppress the democratic and civil rights of their own [Indian] citizens from the minority communities in sheer infringement of what their Constitution pledges,” wrote former AJK premir Sardar Tanveer Ilyas on X.

“… What’s more painful is the attitude of the world community which has been watching Indian cruelties like silent spectators,” he added.

In a statement, PML-N regional secretary general Tariq Farooq said India’s hands were stained with the blood of minorities but it was constantly befooling the world community.

“A true democratic country never shies away from granting democratic rights to others but India has shamelessly usurped the rights of all non-Hindu communities which testifies its being a terrorist rather than a democratic state,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2024