New Delhi/Islamabad, Jul 20, 2016: Pakistan was observing Wednesday as “black day” to “express solidarity” with the people of Kashmir, 44 of whom have died in almost two weeks of violence that has followed the killing of a militant.
The so-called black day coincides with Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, accused of masterminding 2008 Mumbai terror strikes, leading a “Kashmir Carvan” into Islamabad from Lahore to protest against the unrest in the Indian state. Saeed on Tuesday also vowed to march towards Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had announced the ‘black day’ in a cabinet meeting on July 15, a week after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed in a gunfight with security forces, setting off the latest round of protests in the Valley.
Sharif had decided on July 19 but as Pakistan observes the day as “Kashmir’s Accession day”, the ‘black day’ had to be moved forward by a day. Sharif had called Wani a “martyr of the independence movement”.
According to reports, rallies will be held in Pakistan to draw the world’s attention to the Kashmir issue. Officials of the federal and provincial governments will wear black arm bands to work to express political, moral and diplomatic support to Kashmiris, a government statement said. Special prayers will also be held for “martyrs of Kashmir”.
Pakistani diaspora will protests in front of parliaments of their respective countries and UN organisations.
Asserting Kashmir was an internal matter of India, external affairs minister spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, “India completely and unequivocally rejects in the entirety the decisions adopted by the Pakistan cabinet on situation in Jammu and Kashmir.”
But India’s protests have, so far, gone unheard. The “Kashmir Caravan”, organised by Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), comprising trucks and buses, stretched for several kilometers when it started from Lahore on Tuesday.
Members of the JuD, Jamaat-e-Islami and other religious parties were to join it along the way.
Saeed, for whom the US has offered a $10-million bounty, told supporters in Lahore that the rally would have three phases.
In the first phase, the caravan would go to Islamabad to “wake up” members of the national assembly and senate so that they raise their voice for the rights of Kashmiris.
In the second phase, the caravan would travel to Muzaffarabad and Chakothi in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to campaign for the “freedom of Kashmiris”.
“And in the third phase, we will march into occupied Kashmir (Jammu and Kashmir) and we will continue marching till Kashmiris get freedom,” Saeed said.
Like the Pakistan government, Saeed, too, has called Wani a “freedom fighter” and said his death would strengthen the “jihad” in Kashmir.
Saeed wants the Pakistan government to suspend diplomatic and trade ties with India, expel the Indian envoy and recall its high commissioner from New Delhi.
Courtesy: hindustantimes.com