Rawalpindi, A significant rally took place today at Chandni Chowk, organized by the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Cell, to commemorate the martyrdom anniversaries of renowned Kashmiri leaders Muhammad Afzal Guru and Muhammad Maqbool Butt. These figures are remembered for their sacrifices in the struggle for Kashmir’s liberation.

According to Kashmir Media Service, Muhammad Afzal Guru was executed on this day in 2013, and Muhammad Maqbool Butt faced the gallows on February 11, 1984, both in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail, where their remains were interred within the prison grounds. Speakers at the rally highlighted the enduring legacy of these leaders, urging India to return their bodies for appropriate burial rites in Kashmir.

The rally’s speakers declared Guru and Butt as towering heroes of the Kashmiri resistance movement, emphasizing that their sacrifices serve as beacons of hope for those advocating for Kashmir’s right to self-determination. The refusal to release their bodies, they argued, exemplifies the extreme prejudice of Hindu nationalism.

Criticism was also directed at the Indian judiciary, accused of consistently ruling against Kashmiri interests, with the execution of Afzal Guru cited as a particularly egregious example of judicial overreach intended to quell the liberation movement. The speakers underscored that such acts of repression cannot subjugate the Kashmiri people, calling on the international community to pressure India to cease human rights abuses in the occupied territory and to acknowledge the Kashmiris’ sovereign rights.

The discourse at the rally also touched upon the Supreme Court of India’s admission that the evidence against Afzal Guru was inconclusive, yet his execution was deemed necessary to appease the Indian populace. This act of judicial execution was condemned as a grave injustice, pandering to extremist sentiments in India, and a violation of the fundamental rights of Kashmiris to self-determination.

Prominent speakers, including Raja Khan Afsar Khan, Sardar Sajid Mehmood, Sardar Azeem Sarwar, Najeeb Al-Ghfoor Khan, Raja Rashid Raza, and Rauf Ahmed Sabri, voiced their perspectives, collectively calling for a renewed commitment to the Kashmir cause and the honoring of its martyrs’ legacies.