Rawalpindi, May 06, 2023 (PPI-OT): Muhammad Rafiq Dar, the chief spokesman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and the special representative of the incarcerated party chairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik, has sent a detailed letter to the heads of G-20 member states that expressed people’s concern over Indian hidden anti-Kashmir agenda in hosting the official meeting of the forum on May 22 and 23 in disputed Jammu and Kashmir.
The JKF leaders during a press conference at party’s Central Information Office in Rawalpindi today, released the letter addressed to the heads of G-20 member countries to the media. Besides Muhammad Rafiq Dar, party Vice Chairman Saleem Haroon, Central Deputy Secretary General Javed Hanif, AJK-GB Zonal President Sajid Siddiqi, central Deputy Chief Organizer Sardar M Anwar Khan and JKSLF Chairman Ubaid Shabir along with other office-bearers were present in the news conference.
Speaking to media persons, Muhammad Rafiq Dar said in connection with the preparations for this meeting in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir while turning it into a military zone India has made the lives of the local people miserable who are already under duress for the last several decades facing the wrath of almost a million Indian military personnel deployed in such a small place. He said, India, under the garb of security arrangements for the conference, has started a new spree of arrests and extra-judicial killing of Kashmiri youth besides harassment of common people in Kashmir. He said that India, by holding this conference in the disputed region, is trying to achieve its own hidden objectives by misleading the international community.
Rafiq Dar said that the Kashmiri people are determined to continue their struggle based on justice, and backed by unparalleled sacrifices till the objective of freedom is achieved.
Expressing their displeasure against India over hosting this conference in IIOJK, JKLF has appealed to the people of the occupied territory to observe complete strike on 22nd and 23rd of May and the people in AJK-GB to hold protests.
The text of the letter is as follows;
Excellency, without going in to the historical background and other relevant details, the question of people’s unfettered ‘Right to Self-Determination’ of the entire State of Jammu Kashmir, which since 1947 is forcibly divided between India and Pakistan, is a long pending outstanding issue before the United Nations to resolve. The people of this disputed State, from across the forcibly drawn ceasefire line, have been demanding and struggling to achieve the said fundamental ‘Right to Self-Determination’ guaranteed by United Nations Organization (UNO).
Excellency, it is worth mentioning that India (a G-20 member state) despite being the signatory of near about two dozen United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions on Jammu Kashmir dispute, and despite the promises made by the Indian leaders to the people of the State, the successive governments of India backed out of their promises and international obligations and, falsely and untruly claim Jammu Kashmir as integral part of their country.
Excellency, the presence of the indigenous and continued peaceful people’s political freedom movement of last more than seven decades, especially the ongoing phase of over last three decades that have, so for, consumed over one hundred thousand people in the State, and the presence of United Nations Military Observer Group (UNMOGIP) offices in both parts of the divided State of Jammu Kashmir, under Indian and Pakistani control, is a glaring fact that the entire State of Jammu Kashmir does not belong to either of the two countries and that any such claims made by them are illegal and in contradiction with the UNSC resolutions because people of the State of Jammu Kashmir are yet to decide about their fate through the exercise of ‘Right to Self-Determination’.
Excellency, in our just and lawful cause of freedom and demand of unfettered ‘Right to Self-determination’ people of the State are met with brute force by near about a million Indian occupying forces deployed in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The reports of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights of 2018 and 2019 on Jammu and Kashmir stands witness to the fact that Indian forces are involved in gross human rights violations in the State that are continued and systematic.
Excellency, this unabated Indian State sponsored terrorism has so for taken the lives of over one hundred thousand innocent Kashmiri people, caused damage to the property worth billions of dollars and incarceration of thousands of State subjects languishing in different Indian jails along with top political leadership including the JKLF Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik. Yasin Malik not only held official parleys with Prime Ministers of both India and Pakistan but has also represented the Kashmiri freedom movement abroad especially in the US. Such a towering political leader of the State who has contributed tremendously in the peaceful resolution of the issue, for his political belief and in absence of his defense was, on the dictates of current Indian government, unfairly and unjustly sentenced to life imprisonment last year under fabricated cases filed against him by Indian agencies, and now is being unfairly and remotely trialed in over three decades old cases aimed to execute their sinister design of his elimination like they did with Muhammad Maqbool Butt and Muhammad Afzal Guru, who were hanged and buried in India’s infamous Tihar Jail on 11 February 1984 and 9 February 2013 respectively.
Excellency, through a severe military aggression on 5th August 2019, India not only bifurcated the State into two so-called union territories but has also revoked State’s special status by abrogating Article 370 of its constitution and more importantly, what matters most, India removed a century old State’s natural beauty safeguard by abrogating Article 35-A that prohibited non-State residents to acquire State’s property for it being green, agricultural and forest land. Since then, in absence of so-called State government, through undemocratic means India has enforced many anti-people and anti-Kashmir laws and issued near about five million domiciles to non-State residents aimed to change the demography of the State, thus putting a nation with rich historical and moral values at the verge of extinction. This is in utter violation of UNSC resolutions that require both India and Pakistan to uphold and respect the territorial integrity of the disputed State.
Excellency, it is worth reiterating that on President Clinton’s visit to India in March 2000 Indian forces engineered a gruesome terrorist attack on Sikh minority community of the State in Chittisinghpura area of Kashmir and killed 35 innocent Sikhs just to give a bad name to our sacred freedom movement and the similar heinous method was used on 14th February, 2019 in the Pulwama incident that took the situation at the verge of war between the two nuclear countries when Indian Air Force under its garb launched air bombing strikes in Balakote, Pakistan on 26th February followed by failed air strikes in Azad Jammu Kashmir on 28th February that ended with shooting down of two Indian fighter planes and capture of an IAF fighter pilot Squadron leader Abhinandan Varthaman by Pakistan, who as a goodwill gesture was soon handed over to India which actually averted a full-fledged war from taking place.
Excellency, you will be surprised to know that the hidden reality of both the terrorist attacks is exposed now. Indian claim to have killed the perpetrators of Chittisinghpura incident proved to be bogus because those killed by Indian forces were actually the local innocent laborers. Again the then so-called Lt. Governor of IIOJK, Satyapal Malik, in a recent interview with a much known senior Indian TV Journalist Karan Thapar in The Wire admited that the Indian government actually orchestrated the Pulwama incident in 2019 on the excuse of which India had planned to go for a military mayhem.
Excellency, holding the G-20 member countries respective officials’ preparatory meeting in internationally recognized disputed State of Jammu Kashmir on 22 and 23 May prior to the G-20 summit, to be held on 9 and 10 September this year in India, is aimed to mislead and hoodwink the world community as if normalcy has been restored in the State, and that the Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India, which absolutely is not true.
Excellency, the international community is always welcome in Jammu and Kashmir but India being the host of the meeting in disputed State is not acceptable to the local residents. Furthermore, with what ulterior motives India hosts it there and the way security arrangement are being made in Kashmir is a serious cause of concern for the people of the State because besides afresh arrest spree and extrajudicial killings of the local youth, the general public is being harassed in the name of security arrangements.
Excellency, on behalf of the people of the State of Jammu Kashmir, for being a member of influential G-20 group, I urge you to intervene and with the use of diplomatic means take an affirmative action and impress upon both, India and Pakistan to respect and honor the wishes and inherent and inalienable sovereign right of the people of the State by freely allowing them to exercise their unfettered right to self-determination.
Excellency, to start with, let India stop human rights violations in the State, lift restrictions and allow freedom of assembly and speech, lift ban on media and the JKLF, allow international human rights organizations to freely monitor human rights situation in the State, allow international media groups to visit and report the happenings in the State, release all human rights activists and pro-freedom political prisoners including Muhammad Yasin Malik and other top Kashmiri leaders, so that the atmosphere is made conducive to start a fresh, serious, result-oriented and tripartite dialogue process among all the three stakeholders (India, Pakistan and the genuine representatives of Jammu Kashmir).
Excellency, I thank you for taking out time to go through our submission and expect your response.
Sincerely;
Muhammad Rafiq Dar (Chief Spokesman JKLF)
Special Representative of incarcerated JKLF Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik
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