Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Yasin Malik on Tuesday slammed the international community's criminal silence over the continued oppression of Kashmiris under Indian occupation forces on Kashmir Solidarity Day.
On the occasion, Malik ─ in a video message shared with DawnNewsTV ─ thanked the Pakistani nation for standing in solidarity with the people of Kashmir on Feb 5.
"On this day, I would like to ask the international community, was it you who said that there could only be a military solution in Afghanistan?" he asked. "Today the same international community is talking to the Taliban for peace in Afghanistan, because it has understood that no nation can be defeated using military might, and that the solution to all problems lies in talks."
The JKLF chairman observed that the international community "has adopted a stance of criminal silence on Kashmir", even as infants, elders, and youths lose their lives and property to the cause each day.
"The citizens of Kashmir are people too," Malik asserted, adding that is why the international community ─ which seeks global peace and is making efforts for peace in Afghanistan ─ should make similar efforts for resolving the Kashmir issue "so that there is true peace in South Asia".
'Kahsmiri youth forced towards extremism': Mirwaiz Umar Farooq
In a message shared on Twitter, chairman of a faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq thanked the government and people of Pakistan for their "vigorous and unwavering support" for the people of IOK.
Farooq in his video message said that Kashmir Solidarity Day was being marked wherever Pakistanis and Kashmiris are in the world. He said voices were being raised to resolve the dispute as per the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
However, on the other hand in IOK, Indian occupation forces are inflicting tyranny, torture and bloodshed on the people of the region, and human rights abuses are at their peak.
"The youth are being forced to to take up arms without any concern for their futures ─ they are being pushed towards extremism. And as a result, every day these oppressed people take out funeral processions for their loved ones," he said.
Pakistani support raises our morale: Mashal Malik
Mashal Malik, wife of Yasin Malik, in a video message thanked the people of Pakistan for the "unconditional and selfless support" for the oppressed people of Kashmir.
"This raises our morale and gives us more courage to fight against oppression, tyranny and against the occupation of Kashmir and Indian brutalities," she said.
"A day will hopefully arrive when liberty and freedom will be an air to breathe in Indian-occupied Kashmir and our promised right, our legitimate right, according to United Nations resolutions will be granted to us, like every human being on this earth has the right to honour, dignity and freedom," Malik said.
"Through the democratic voice of the Pakistani nation, the entire world is getting the message that this is a grassroots movement," she said.
"Every segment of society in Pakistan is united in feeling the pain of the Kashmiri people. The entire business community sustains a loss for a day, students don't go to school, they protest on the streets," Malik said.
"Whether doctors, engineers or media people, they are expressing their grief and sadness over the Indian genocide of innocent Kashmiris."
