Thousands of people in Pakistan rallied in major cities yesterday to mark one year since neighbouring India scrapped the special status of the disputed region of Kashmir.
Political leaders, trade unions, councils for lawyers and rights activists participated in the rallies to condemn what they called a “repressive Indian decision”.
President Dr Arif Alvi and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi led the biggest rally in the capital Islamabad, where protesters chanted slogans and called on the global powers to intervene.
India’s nationalist government had deployed more troops to the region before announcing on August 5, 2019 that it was ending the semi-autonomous status of Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim area in the Himalayan valley controlled in parts by New Delhi and Islamabad but claimed by both in its entirety.
Pakistan rejected what it sees as an annexation of Kashmir by New Delhi, which opposes Islamabad’s position that the region’s fate should be decided through a UN-organised plebiscite.
A referendum in Kashmir mandated by a UN resolution in 1948 has never taken place.
Pakistan has downgraded diplomatic relations with India, suspended a cross-border bus service and halted bilateral trade.
“The Indian move in Kashmir is the worst rights violation,” Alvi said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan meanwhile led a rally in the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir and urged the world to intervene against the move that he said made 8mn Muslims in Kashmir prisoners in their own homes.
Pakistan would continue to raise the issue of Kashmir at international platforms to push India take back the annexation decision, he said in a speech.
Khan led a march through Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered-Kashmir, before addressing the region’s legislative assembly.
Across the city, more than 2,000 people turned out at a series of protests.
“We ask the world to give Kashmiris their right of self-determination, otherwise we will cross the Line of Control (LoC) and help our brothers on the other side with arms,”, Arslan Ahmad, a refugee who fled Indian-administered Kashmir, told AFP.
“Half of my family is under siege in Indian-occupied Kashmir, my mother is dying to meet her sister, this dispute has left our generations torn apart,” 31-year-old Usman Mir added.
Leaders of Pakistan-administered Kashmir condemned India for the security lockdown of the region by Indian forces to curb possible unrest provoked by the decision.
“What India is doing in Kashmir is an insult to human dignity ... we urge the UN and the civilised world to help end the lockdown,” said Raja Farooq Haider, prime minister of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Pakistan’s cabinet on Tuesday approved a new map showing entire region as part of the country and renamed a road in Islamabad Srinagar Highway, after the capital of the Indian Kashmir.
Pakistan and India, nuclear-armed South Asian rivals, have fought three wars since they gained independence from Britain in 1947.
The Pakistan military, meanwhile, said Indian troops had fired a shell across the de-facto border, killing a young woman and wounding six other people.
Such exchanges are common along the Kashmir demarcation line, with shells blasted in both directions.
President Arif Alvi (second right), Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi (second left) and Speaker of the National Assembly Asad Qaiser (right) are seen leading a rally in Islamabad to show their solidarity with people of Indian-administered Kashmir.
