ISLAMABAD: The All Parties Hurriyat Conference Azad Jammu and Kashmir (APHC-AJK) chapter has strongly denounced the ban imposed by the BJP-led Indian government on the Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference, local media reported on Thursday.
According to local media reports, the Indian Home Ministry issued a notification declaring the Muslim Conference Jammu and Kashmir led by Prof Abdul Ghani Butt and another faction led by Ghulam Nabi Sumji as banned under the black and draconian law, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for 5 years.
APHC-AJK leader Mehmood Ahmad Saghar and other Hurriyat leaders including Shaikh Abdul Mateen, Altaf Hussain Wani, Zahid Safi, Imtiyaz Wani, and Adeel Mushtaq Wani in their statements said that the Indian authorities’ action to declare Kashmiri political parties as illegal associations were part of Modi regime’s relentless drive to crush the Kashmiris’ struggle, suppress opposition and consolidate its unlawful occupation.
They said that banning a political party or organization on false and fabricated charges was a disgrace to the system of democracy. They said that any voice raised for cause of justice has never been silenced by such arbitrary tactics.
These arbitrary steps, they added, were not only against the democratic norms and values but a flagrant violation of basic human rights and global humanitarian law.
They further said that New Delhi needs to realize is that it cannot crush the Kashmiris’ legitimate struggle by imposing sanctions on political activists, saying that such colonial-era tactics would not help India to prevent Kashmiris from pursuing their just cause for which they have rendered a lot of sacrifices.
They added the APHC and its affiliated parties have always maintained that Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory recognized by the UN, saying India’s brutal steps and illegal orders will neither change this status nor affect the Kashmiris stand on their genuine and legal demand of right to self-determination.
They asked the UN, EU, and Organization of Islamic Cooperation to come forward and save the people of occupied Kasmir from Modi regime’s aggression and its Hindutva policies and resolve the dispute of Kashmir as per the UN resolutions to bring peace in South Asia.
