The All Parties Hurriyat Conference and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front have appealed to people to observe a strike on Wednesday (11 February) to commemorate the martyrdom anniversaries of prominent freedom leader Muhammad Maqbool Butt and Muhammad Afzal Guru in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

According to Kashmir Media Service, the APHC, at a meeting of its executive body in Srinagar, deliberated on the current political situation and expressed its grave concern over the prevailing atmosphere of oppression and suppression perpetrated by the Indian forces in the territory, the spokesman Advocate Abdul Rashid Minhas said in a statement.India had hanged Muhammad Afzal Guru in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail on 9 February 2013 and Muhammad Maqbool Butt in the same jail on 11 February 1984. Their bodies remain buried in the premises of the jail.

The meeting paid rich tributes and reverence to nearly five lakh martyrs of the liberation movement, who sacrificed their precious lives for the sacred cause of the right to self determination.The meeting also remembered the great sons of the soil, Muhammad Maqbool Butt and Muhammad Afzal Guru, on their martyrdom anniversaries and appealed to the peace- and freedom-loving people of the territory to observe a complete shutdown on 11 February and urged people to express their solidarity with the martyrs.

They said that these great sons of the soil sacrificed their lives for the future of Kashmiri generations.The APHC said that the sacrifices rendered by Muhammad Maqbool Butt, Muhammad Afzal Guru, and other martyrs would continue to serve as a beacon of light in the dark night of Jammu and Kashmir. The meeting, while paying rich tributes to the martyrs, said that India could not break the freedom sentiment of the people by hanging them for the crime they had not committed.

The meeting, while condemning the inhuman and brutal attitude of the Hindutva BJP regime, reiterated its commitment and resolve to lead the ongoing resistance movement to its logical conclusion.The meeting urged the United States, the United Nations, OIC, and the civilized international community to impress upon India to recognize its responsibilities as a signatory to the United Nations resolutions on the Kashmir dispute.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)