MUZAFFARABAD: A large number of people took to the streets in many cities and towns of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Thursday to remind the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) of its Jan 5, 1949 resolution envisaging the right to self-determination for the Kashmiri people.

In Muzaffarabad, a rally was taken out from Burhan Wani Chowk under the aegis of Pasban-i-Hurriyat Jammu Kashmir (PHJK), an organisation of post-1989 migrants from India Held Kashmir, to mark the Right to Self Determination Day.

Participants of the rally, who included men, women and children, were carrying banners and placards, inscribed with slogans eulogising the determination of the freedom-seeking Kashmiris in the face of India’s intransigence.

Ironically, there was no representation of any ruling or opposition legislator in the rally held in the state capitalto commemorate the adoption of the Jan5, 1949 UNSC resolution.

The rally concluded outside the UN Military Observers Mission in Domel, where a six-member delegation, led by PHJK chief Uzair Ahmed Ghazali, presented a memorandum.

Earlier, speaking to the participants, Mr Ghazali said that the purpose of the rally was to remind the international community, mainly the UN, of their commitments to the Kashmiris regarding a free, fair and impartial plebiscite whereby they could decide the future status of their motherland on their own free accord.

He lamented that while India had been blatantly refusing to implement the UNSC resolutions on Kashmir, the world community was behaving as silent spectators in what amounted to a grave injustice and iniquity.

Regarding India’s illegal and unilateral actions on August 5, 2019, he said it had once again proved that India believed in colonialism and imperialism under the garb of the so-called largest democracy.

In the lakeside city of Mirpur, civil society activists staged a big rally from district courts to the town’s famous Chowk Shaheedan in collaboration with the district administration.

In the afternoon, a motorcycle cum car rally was taken out by a large number of youngsters under the aegis of Khadija Zareen Foundation from Chehla Bridge to the UN Mission in Domel via Western bypass. Holding flags of AJK and Pakistan, its participants kept on chanting anti-India and pro-freedom and pro-Pakistan slogans.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2023