ISLAMABAD: In opposition to the Indian government’s hosting of the G20 meeting in Srinagar, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) on Saturday urged the people of Kashmir to observe a total shutdown in Indian Illegally-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) on Monday, May 22.
The Kashmir media service reported that the political leadership has also supported the strike call, the Azad Jammu and Kashmir government, and parties of Pakistan and AJK. While the Kashmiri Diaspora will hold anti-India protest demonstrations and rallies in global capitals, including US AND UK, to denounce the Indian step what Fernand de Varennes, the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, has called an attempt to normalize the military occupation of India over Jammu and Kashmir.
Masarrat Aalam Butt, the Chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference who is currently imprisoned, has encouraged the residents of IIOJK to embark on a total strike on Monday in protest of the Narendra Modi-led Indian government’s decision to conduct the G20 summit in Srinagar.
Masarrat Aalam Butt, in a message sent from New Delhi’s notorious Tihar Jail, also urged Kashmiris living abroad and in Azad Jammu and Kashmir to hold protest rallies on that day in opposition to the Modi government’s unlawful action.
She asserted that the Modi administration is aiming to mislead the world about the actual situation in IIOJK and legitimize its illegal acts of August 5, 2019, by having the G20 conference in an area that is an internationally acknowledged disputed region. To show their support for human rights and ideals, she pleaded with the attendees of this August conference to skip the conference.
While the APHC has pasted the posters on poles and walls in the streets of Srinagar and surrounding areas with a message to the people of Kashmir to observe the strike, they said this strike would convey a strong and clear message to the G20 countries in India that the holding of the meeting of the global forum in Srinagar will be an open violation of the UN resolutions on Kashmir.
Pakistan criticized India’s decision to host the G20 summit in occupied Kashmir on May 22, calling it “irresponsible.” In a statement, Pakistan’s foreign ministry condemned the selection of locations in illegally occupied land. The latest in a string of self-serving actions by India to maintain its unlawful occupation of Jammu and Kashmir, it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Sikhs based in the US have also come forward to expose the evil design of Modi-government to hoodwink the world about the current situation of IIOJK through holding the G20 meeting in Srinagar.
The Sikhs For Justice, the organization leading the drive for a separate homeland for Sikhs under the name of Khalistan, urged the people of Kashmir to block the Srinagar airport to warn the delegates about the sensitivity of attending the G20 meeting in the occupied area.
India is organizing the meeting in the disputed territory, according to a report by Al Jazeera, “to claim that it’s 2019 scrapping of partial autonomy brought peace and development.” According to the Al Jazeera report, “Since New Delhi took direct control of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), several laws and policies have been pushed by the (Modi) government, which Kashmiris in the valley claim are intended to undermine their fight for the right to self-determination.”
The intellectuals condemned India for trying to legitimize its illegal control of the Kashmir valley by hosting the G20 summit in IIOJK. India has consistently misled the world community about the Kashmir issue, breaking international law and UN resolutions even though Kashmir is an officially recognized disputed region. According to international laws and norms, no international conferences may be held in any contested territory.
Unfortunately, due to economic, diplomatic, and political interests with India, the international community is reluctant to pressurize India to implement the UN resolutions on the Kashmir dispute and force India to stop its aggression in the disputed territory.
