Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has paid tribute to brave kashmiris on Yaum-e-Shuhada-e-Kashmir (Kashmir Martyrs’ Day) for their courage, determination and sacrifices against illegal Indian occupation of the disputed valley.
We pay tribute to the 22 brave Kashmiris who laid down their lives fighting Dogra Forces in 1931 & to all Kashmiri martyrs since, said FM Qureshi.
The foreign minister stressed that ‘no amount of Indian atrocities and occupation can subjugate the spirit of brave Kashmiris’.
On 13th July 1931, the troops of Dogra Maharaja had killed 22 Kashmiris, one after the other, outside the Central Jail in Srinagar during the court proceedings against one Abdul Qadeer who had asked the Kashmiri people to defy the Dogra Rule. Thus, 22 youth sacrificed their lives till the completion of Azaan.
The martyrs lost their lives during protest against sham trial of a Kashmiri leader on trumped up charges. The courage of these martyrs galvanized an unparalleled struggle for self-determination in 1931 that continues till date.
Yaum-e-shuhada-e-Kashmir is observed in Pakistan and on both sides of the Line of Control as well as by Kashmiri and Pakistani diasporas across the globe each year to commemorate the valour and sacrifices of the Kashmiris.
Separately, in a statement Foreign Office (FO) has accentuated that 90 Kashmiris have been martyred by the Indian Occupation Forces in IIOJK since August 5th, 2019. During this year (2021) alone, the Indian Occupation Forces have extra-judicially killed 85 innocent Kashmiris including young boys and women; arbitrarily arrested and detained 537 Kashmiris; and destroyed 31 houses of Kashmiri people.
As we commemorate the sacrifices of innocent Kashmiris today, we once again call upon the international community, particularly the United Nations and human rights organizations, to investigate the persistent extra-judicial killings of Kashmiris by Indian Occupation Forces and bring the perpetrators of these heinous crimes to justice, said the FO press-release.
Pakistan will continue to support its Kashmiri brethren in their just struggle against Indian oppression till the realization of their inalienable right to self-determination as enshrined in the relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions, it added.
