Federal cabinet declares April 6 as Kashmir Solidarity Day

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet in its special meeting Monday declared that Kashmir Solidarity Day would be observed on Wednesday (April 6) in support of Kashmiri people and against Indian brutalities.

The federal cabinet met here under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi wherein Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif gave a presentation on the situation in Indian occupied Kashmir (IOK).

He also apprised the meeting about Pakistan’s efforts to garner support of international community for innocent Kashmiris who were being subjected to brutalities by Indian forces.

The federal cabinet offered Fateha for the Shuhuda and prayed for early recovery of the injured.

The federal cabinet also adopted a resolution which said that the cabinet members would participate in the Joint Session of the AJK Legislative Assembly to be held on Wednesday (April 4). It also decided to send special envoys of the Prime Minister, including the President of Azad Jammu Kashmir, to selected capitals to highlight the deteriorating situation in IOK.

The committee reviewed the current situation arising from the recent Indian brutalities and killings in IOK.

The meeting strongly condemned the brutal and indiscriminate use of force by the Indian occupation forces that resulted in the martyrdom of more than 20 innocent Kashmiris in Shopian and Anantnag in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

The federal cabinet emphatically condemned the suspension of communication services, especially the Internet in the valley, and underscored that such reprehensible Indian attempts aimed at silencing the voice of the Kashmiris from reaching the international community would never succeed.

The cabinet members paid tribute to the brave and resilient people of IOK, who had been continuously demonstrating against the brutal repression, incarceration, torture and extra judicial killing perpetrated by the illegal occupation Indian forces.

The meeting emphatically condemned the draconian laws, including POTA, TADA, PSA and AFSPA imposed by India in IOK.

It stressed that the deteriorating situation in IOK and the Indian escalation at the Working Boundary and the Line of Control was a flashpoint and a threat to regional peace and tranquillity.

Expressing solidarity with the people of Jammu and Kashmir, the meeting urged the international community to take cognizance of the gross and systematic human rights violations of the Kashmiris in IOK.

The meeting requested the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission to send fact finding missions to the IOK.

The cabinet also reiterated the Prime Minister’s request to the UN Secretary General to appoint a Special Envoy for Jammu and Kashmir with a mandate flowing from the unimplemented UN Security Council resolutions.