ISLAMABAD : The legal fraternity from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), and Rawalpindi division on Monday staged a rally to express solidarity with oppressed people of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IHK).
On the call of AJK Bar Council, Supreme Court Bar Association, Punjab Bar Association, the lawyers from all the bars of AJK and twin cities reached UN office in Islamabad in a rally where they staged a protest demonstration.
Lawyers were holding banners and placards in their hands with slogans inscribed in support of liberation of Kashmir from the Indian clutches. They chanted anti-India slogans.
Addressing the rally, the representatives of bar associations urged the United Nations and international human rights organizations to take notice of ongoing Indian brutalities in occupied Kashmir. Indian government after abrogating article 370 from its constitution on August 5th, imposed curfew across IHK which continues. The clampdown has cut off communications from most parts of Occupied Kashmir from rest of the world.
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Speakers at the rally highlighted legal points related to Kashmir issue. They rejected Indian claim of Kashmir being its part and said that even the letter of accession singed by the ruler of State of Jammu and Kashmir back in 1948 was conditional between the two sovereigns.
The lawyers said Kashmir is an internationally recognized disputed territory and Indian recent action of abrogating clauses related to Kashmir in her constitution have no legal standing.
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The lawyers’ community from AJK presented the UN representative a letter to the UN Secretary General recalling the pledge made by the international community back in 1948 and 1949 to hold free and fair plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir.
They said even the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has highlighted the grave human rights violations taking place in IHK.
The AJK Bar Council in its letter further said India has deployed 900,000 troops in the occupied territory to curb the voice of people of Jammu and Kashmir for their right to self-determination.
The Council asked the UN secretary general to initiate investigations against Indian atrocities, massive killings of people, abduction of youth, rape of women in IHK in the hands of Indian troops.
They also asked the United Nations to fulfil the obligation of holding an impartial plebiscite that could determine the future of Jammu and Kashmir as per UN resolutions.
