Give Kashmiris right of self-determination: PM
muzaffarabad — Prime Minister Imran Khan branded India an “oppressor and aggressor” on Wednesday, a year after New Delhi imposed direct rule on Indian-administered Kashmir.
Solidarity marches were held in all major Pakistani cities to mark the anniversary of New Delhi stripping Muslim-majority region of its semi-autonomous status, a move that outraged Islamabad.
Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan territory, has been split since 1947 between India and Pakistan, both of which claim it in full and have fought wars over it.
“India stands exposed before the world, yet again, as an oppressor and aggressor,” Khan said in a statement.
“Its so-called secular and democratic credentials stand fully discredited,” he added, calling India’s action last year a “crime against humanity”.
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 anti-India protests.
“We ask the world to give Kashmiris their right of self-determination, otherwise we will cross the Line of Control and help our brothers on the other side with arms,” Arslan Ahmad, a refugee who fled Indian-administered Kashmir, said.
“Half of my family is under siege in Indian-administered Kashmir, my mother is dying to meet her sister, this dispute has left our generations torn apart,” 31-year old Usman Mir added.
Khan accused India of trying to turn Kashmir’s Muslim majority into a minority by ending restrictions on outsiders buying up property “in blatant violation of... UN Security Council Resolutions and international laws”.
The change in rules has sparked fears that the Modi government is pursuing an Israelstyle “settler” project.
A referendum in Kashmir mandated by a UN resolution in 1948 has never taken place.
“India has learned from Israel how to change the demography (of Kashmir),” President Arif Alvi told a rally in Islamabad, which observed a one-minute silence.
Hundreds of billboards and banners displayed graphic images purportedly of human rights violations by Indian authorities in Kashmir.
On Tuesday, Pakistan released a new official map showing all of Kashmir as its territory.
The Pakistan military, meanwhile, said that Indian troops had fired a shell across the de-facto border, killing a young woman and wounding six other people.
Meanwhile, Pakistanis in the UAE on Wednesday expressed solidary with the Kashmiris and voiced their support on the occasion of the first anniversary of Article 370’s abrogation by India in Jammu and Kashmir.
Ahmed Ajmad Ali, consul-general at the Pakistan Consulate, Dubai, highlighted the condition of the Kashmiris who have been living under a curfew for the past one year after the abrogation of Article 370.
Messages on behalf of President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan were also read out on this occasion.