The All Parties Hurriyat Conference while holding India responsible for perpetrating cultural genocide in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir has demanded an immediate halt to these efforts, alongside the release of political detainees, including its own leadership. 

According to Kashmir Media Service, APHC spokesman Advocate Abdul Rashid Minhas, in a statement issued in Srinagar, expressed serious concern over the deteriorating health of Hurriyat Chairman Masarrat Aalam Butt, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Aasiya Andrabi, Nahida Nasreen, Fehmeeda Sofi, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Aiyaz Akbar, Raja Merajudin Kalwal, Peer Saifullah, Advocate Mian Abdul Qayoom, Bilal Siddiqi, Maulvi Bashir Andrabi, Mushtaqul Islam and others, saying it is a matter that worries not only their families but all the people. 

The APHC urged the Indian government to release all political prisoners, including the leadership, youth, activists, civil society members and media persons. It said that, at the very least, while they remain in jail, their legal and fundamental rights must be respected and restored in accordance with the law.

The APHC said India has been treating Kashmir as its colony since 1947, when its troops illegally landed in Srinagar on 27th October 1947 against the partition plan of the subcontinent and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.It said the BJP regime’s illegal move on August 5, 2019 to repeal the special status of the occupied territory was another step towards colonising Kashmir. The statement added that the colonisation of IIOJK has long been a dream of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The marginalisation of the indigenous population and policies of land grab are obvious manifestations of the BJP-RSS colonial project in the occupied territory, the statement added. The APHC said that India, under a planned conspiracy, is trying to erase the identity of the Kashmiri people by taking away their properties and lands. The statement said that by depriving the people of IIOJK of their basic rights, they are being pushed into the worst form of political subjugation.

It said the land of Jammu and Kashmir belongs to its people, and it is the duty of all Kashmiris to protect it. The identity of Kashmiris is being undermined by settling non-Kashmiris in the territory, it lamented. The statement also urged the BJP-led Indian government to shun its rigid policy on Kashmir and come to the table for talks with Pakistan and the Kashmiri leadership for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)