Srinagar, Jan 22: The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) on Tuesday urged people to observe January 26 as a ‘black day’ to register their strong protest against New Delhi for not resolving Kashmir dispute.
In a statement, the JRL comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik said that for past 71 years people of J&K have been demanding the right to self-determination that Indian leadership promised to them.
“However, till this day not only has that commitment not been fulfilled but those that remind them of it are rewarded with bullets and pellets are incarcerated and gagged,” the statement said.
“A nation that prides itself on being a representative democracy chosen by the free will of its people, a republic, is executing tyranny and suppression to forcibly exert its will over the people of Kashmir.”
They said that lakhs of armed forces are deployed to suppress the aspirations of people and “draconian laws like AFSPA and PSA are invoked to ensure people’s sentiments do not get out of hand.”
“Hundreds of people are lodged and languishing in jails in JK and outside whose only crime is their demand for restoration of basic human and political rights the fundamental right to decide their destiny,” the JRL said.
