(UTV | COLOMBO) – The High Commission of Pakistan in Sri Lanka organised a seminar to mark the ‘Kashmir Black Day’ today (27) in Colombo.
The seminar was addressed by Dr. Asela Wickramasinghe, former advisor to the Maldives Government and Advisor to Asia Pacific Elite Entrepreneurs Association in Singapore, Mr. Iftikhar Aziz, President of the Sri Lanka Pakistan Friendship Association, Mr. Shiraz Yoonus, Political Activist and National Coordinator of Muslim Affairs to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, and Ms. Suriya Rizwi. The panel of speakers highlighted Indian atrocities in the State of Jammu and Kashmir and inhumane treatment of innocent Kashmiris at the hands of Indian occupation forces.
The guest speakers highlighted that Kashmir was a source of long-standing dispute between Pakistan and India, which originated when the people of Jammu and Kashmir were denied the right of self-determination in 1947. It was underscored that when India and Pakistan became independent on August 1947, it was generally assumed that Kashmir, as a contiguous state with a predominantly Muslim population, would accede to Pakistan. Its ruler, the Maharaja, however, on 27 October 1947 acceded to India through an improper and illegal Instrument of Accession. On the same day, India airlifted its forces to Srinagar and occupied the valley. It was further emphasised that since 05 August 2019, the scale and impunity of the Indian Government’s human rights violations have increased several-folds. Through the deployment of additional troops and an unprecedented media and communication black out, that has continued for almost 3-months, Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) has been turned into the largest prison on the planet. Referring to the United Nations Security Council’s special sessions on the Kashmir issue, the speakers noted that the international community is no more a silent spectator to the Indian atrocities.
The Acting High Commissioner of Pakistan, Tanvir Ahmad, while thanking the guest speakers and attendees, paid homage to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for their just struggle against decades long Indian illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir and reiterated Pakistan’s moral, political and diplomatic support for the Kashmiris in their right to self-determination. Explaining the purpose of the seminar, he said that it was to draw attention towards the perpetual misery of the Kashmiri people and to stress the urgency of resolving the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the aspirations of Kashmiri people under the auspices of UNSC resolutions.
In his concluding remarks, he decried the human rights violations committed by the Indian occupation forces in IIOJK for the past seven decades. He said that the world community was under moral obligation to ensure a United Nations (UN) sponsored plebiscite in Kashmir according to the wishes of the Kashmiri people. He recalled that the Kashmir issue was first brought to the UN by India; however, India has been reluctant to implement UNSC resolutions for the past 72-years.
Comprehensive discussion was held during the seminar, urging the Indian Government to rescind its illegal and unilateral actions in the occupied territory. The seminar was attended by people from different walks of life including diplomats, professionals, journalists, writers, local friends of Kashmir as well as the Pakistani community.
