Srinagar, February 18, 2023 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Narendra Modi-led fascist Indian government’s settler colonial project has started taking its practical shape as Indian industrialists are grabbing the land of Kashmiris in the name of setting up industries. In this regard the Mumbai-based Jindal Group has laid the foundation stone of its steel processing unit in the occupied territory. The steel processing unit being set up in Pulwama district of south Kashmir is the first such project set up after the abrogation of Article 370 and 35-A in August 2019. These Articles guaranteed special status to IIOJK and exclusive rights to its citizens. The IIOJK administration had granted 70 Kanal (8.75 acre) land to JSW Steel.
The Modi regime revoked the special status of IIOJK on August 05, 2019 and later introduced new domicile and land laws that allow the Indian citizens to acquire land and get government jobs in the occupied territory that were only meant for the state subjects of Jammu and Kashmir. The illegally detained All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Masarrat Aalam Butt and other leaders including Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Nayeem Ahmed Khan had already warned that Modi regime is hell bent upon converting the Muslim majority of IIOJK into a minority by permanently settling the Indian citizens in the territory.
They said India has been treating Jammu and Kashmir as its colony right from 27th October in 1947 when its troops illegally landed in Srinagar against the spirit of the partition plan of the subcontinent and the aspirations of the Kashmiris. They said the Modi regime has taken a number of steps on and after August 5, 2019 towards Kashmir’s colonization, which has since long been a dream of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The APHC leaders said marginalization of the indigenous population and policies of land grab are obvious manifestations of Modi’s colonial project in the occupied territory. They pointed out that Modi is using Indian business companies and tycoons to expand the colonization of Kashmir. They said the colonial measures in IIOJK by India are clear violations of the United Nations resolutions. They appealed to the international community to hold India accountable for its brutal actions in the occupied territory.
Meanwhile, the General Secretary of APHC-AJK chapter, Sheikh Abdul Mateen, in a statement issued in Islamabad strongly denounced the ongoing eviction and demolition campaign by the Indian authorities in IIOJK. He said India in the guise of anti-encroachment drive wants to grab the Kashmiris’ lands and properties and hand them over to the Indian Hindus to turn the Muslim majority in the occupied territory into a minority. He said the people of Jammu and Kashmir will not allow these nefarious ambitions of the fascist Modi government to succeed.
The APHC-AJK leader urged the international community, particularly the United Nations, to take cognizance of India’s brutal actions to expel the Kashmiri people from their lands and properties and play an effective role in resolving the Kashmir dispute to save the Kashmiris from Indian state terrorism.
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