More News 2005(ARCHIVE)    
   
Kashmiris in Pakistan observe Indian holiday as 'Black Day'

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistani-controlled Kashmir (AFP) - Hundreds of people took to the streets in Pakistan's zone of Kashmir (news - web sites) to observe India's Republic Day as a so-called black day, officials and witnesses said.

 
 

Waving black flags and banners emblazoned with anti-India slogans, the protesters paraded through Muzaffarabad, capital of the divided Himalayan state's Pakistani-administered sector.

"Down with India," cried the demonstrators as they marched to the United Nations (news - web sites) office in the city, where they called on the world body to pressure India to stop alleged atrocities in its part of Kashmir.

The scenic region has sparked two of the three wars between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan since independence from Britain in 1947. Both countries claim the entire Muslim-majority area in full.

Protesters on Wednesday called for India to allow Kashmiris the right to self-determination. A UN Security Council ruling dating back to 1948 calls for a plebiscite to decide which country Kashmiris want to join.

"India has no right to celebrate its Republic Day when it has usurped the basic and internationally acknowledged right of the people of Jammu and Kashmir," state minister Syed Mumtaz Ali Gillani told the rally.

In Islamabad, some 200 Kashmiris protested outside the Indian embassy. The rally was organised by the Pakistan chapter of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella group waging a separatist drive in Indian-held Kashmir.

"We urge the international community to compel India to stop oppression," APHC  leader Mohammad Farooq Rehmani told the rally.

Islamic rebels in Indian-held Kashmir launched an insurgency in 1989 which has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Most of the rebels want to join mainly-Muslim Pakistan although some want independence.

India and Pakistan launched a peace process last year focusing on Kashmir but the step-by-step dialogue has made no major headway so far. -Yahoo News 26-Jan-2005

 

No constitutional step by India was substitute-Rehmani

Islamabad:26,Jan 2005:Muhammad Farooq Rehmani convener All Parties Hurriet Conference AJK Chapter has urged India not to undermine the importance of the demand of the  people of Kashmir for the right of self determination by raising the bogey of local bodies (LB) elections after a long span of 27 years. He was addressing today a black day rally organized by the APHC before the Indian High Commission Islamabad. It meant to tell the world that the republic day of India was never acceptable to Kashmiris, whose political struggle was never linked with the constitution of India. Muhammad Farooq Rehmani said that no constitutional step by India was substitute to the promised plebiscite under UN, whether it was the election for the State Assembly or Parliament or Local Bodies in the State. He announced that the people of Kashmir would boycott the fourth coming LB elections in the State, as they did in the past in regard to the legislative body elections. He further said that no election under the Indian constitution would bring peace and normalcy in the bleeding land of Kashmiris, rather the occupation forces and police would further unleash terrorism under the pretext of organizing LB polling. He said that Kashmir was an international dispute and hence every effort should be made to search out a peaceful solution of the dispute trilaterally according to the urges and aspirations of Kashmiris. He asked India to reduce her number of troops, repeal her black laws and remove restrictions on Hurriet leaders to pave a way for the peaceful settlement of Kashmir dispute. The rally was also addressed by other representatives of APHC and leaders of AJK political organizations

HOME