MUZAFFARABAD: Kashmiri activists staged a demonstration here on Thursday to register their condemnation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Srinagar, stating that the fascist Indian leader was always unwelcome in the internationally acknowledged disputed Himalayan region where his savage troops and administration had crossed all limits of barbarity to subdue the freedom seeking population.

“Kashmiris boycott Narendra Modi’s visit,” read one of the banners being carried by the demonstrators held on a busy roundabout of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) capital, named after the young Kashmiri martyred commander, Burhan Wani.

The demonstration was organised by Pasban-i-Hurriyat Jammu Kashmir (PHJK), an outfit of post-1989 migrants from occupied Jammu and Kashmir and always at the forefront of anti-India activities.

Its participants were also holding placards, whereupon the Indian premier’s portrait with blood stained hands was printed.

“Narendra Modi, the blood [of Kashmiris] is on your hands,” read one such placard.

The demonstrators burnt used tyres on the road and chanted anti-India and anti-Modi slogans.

“Killer, killer, Modi killer,” was one of the various chants.

Speaking on the occasion, PHJK chief Uzair Ahmed Ghazali maintained that hardly any Indian government had spared the freedom seeking inhabitants of occupied Jammu and Kashmir from repression, but Mr Modi had crossed all limits of fascism and barbarity.

“By visiting Srinagar under an unprecedented security cover, Mr Modi wants the world to believe that Kashmiris have surrendered themselves to India’s illegitimate occupation. But he is gravely mistaken; Kashmiris can never forget and forgive the tormentors and will continue their struggle by all means until it reaches its logical end,” he said.

“Let it be known to the world once again that India exists in occupied Jammu and Kashmir as an occupier, oppressor, aggressor and terrorist, where all of its imperialist and Chanakya strategies and conspiracies have failed,” he added.

Mr Ghazali recalled that Mr Modi had not only stripped occupied Jammu and Kashmir of its special status but had also been trying to erode their language, identity and other cultural symbols in a series of arbitrary actions on and after through August 5, 2019.

Scoffing at the so-called development packages being announced by Mr Modi and his cohorts during their visits to the occupied territory, Mr Ghazali said that hundreds of thousands of Kashmiris had not shed their sacred blood for any kind of development packages, but to achieve their internationally acknowledged right to self-determination.

“We spurn all such farcical packages which are aimed at hoodwinking the international community. Our struggle is for emancipation and it will continue against all the odds,” declared the occupied Kashmir-born leader. Other speakers, who included some locals, also expressed similar views.

They vowed that four million AJK residents would not tolerate cruelty and violence against their brethren in occupied Kashmir and called upon the United Nations to fulfil its promises to the Kashmiri people regarding plebiscite in their motherland.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2024