New Delhi, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, a senior leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference currently incarcerated, has strongly criticized the Indian Supreme Court’s ruling on Jammu and Kashmir, stating that the region has never been a part of India and thus, any Indian legal or judicial actions regarding the territory lack moral and legal legitimacy.

According to Kashmir Media Service, Shah, conveying his message from New Delhi’s Tihar Jail, referred to the Indian Supreme Court’s decision upholding the actions of the Modi government on August 5, 2019, as a betrayal to the people of Kashmir. He accused the Indian judiciary of failing to deliver justice to the Kashmiris and being historically biased against them. Shah cited the executions of Maqbool Butt and Afzal Guru as examples of this bias and injustice.

Shah dismissed the Indian apex court’s verdict as irrelevant to the Kashmiri people, who view Kashmir as a disputed territory forcibly occupied by India in 1947. He emphasized that the Kashmiris’ primary demand is a plebiscite in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions, allowing them the right to self-determination and to decide their political future.

He asserted that the United Nations resolutions do not grant the Indian government any authority to alter the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir or to annex it unilaterally, whether through legislative or judicial means. Shah stressed that the Kashmiri people have rejected these moves and are determined to accept nothing less than freedom.

Shah expressed concern over the Indian government’s intentions behind the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35-A, seeing it as an attempt to erase the Kashmiris’ political, cultural, and religious identity. He urged the Kashmiri people to remain vigilant and resist the Modi government’s efforts to create a situation similar to Palestine, aiming to change the demographic makeup of the occupied territory and seize control of its resources.