The All Parties Hurriyat Conference, while paying glowing tributes to the martyrs of Bijbehara on their martyrdom anniversary, today, reaffirmed the Kashmiris' resolve to continue their struggle until the realization of their inalienable right to self-determination.  According to Kashmir Media Service, over 50 innocent Kashmiris were martyred in Bijbehara area of Islamabad district on October 22, 1993, when Indian Border Security Force personnel opened indiscriminate fire on peaceful demonstrators protesting against the Indian military siege of Srinagar's Hazratbal shrine. 

APHC spokesman Advocate Abdul Rashid Minhas, in a statement issued in Srinagar, reiterated the demand for an impartial probe into the Bijbehara massacre and all other such atrocities committed by Indian forces in occupied Kashmir. He urged the people of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir to forge greater unity and continue their peaceful struggle for their UN-recognized right to self-determination. He strongly condemned the grave human rights violations being perpetrated by Indian troops in IIOJK and the Modi regime's iron-fist policy against the Kashmiri people. 

He maintained that innocent lives would continue to be lost and uncertainty would persist in the region until the perpetrators of heinous crimes against Kashmiris were brought to justice and the Kashmir dispute was resolved in line with the UN resolutions.  The APHC spokesman said Indian state terrorism and massacres that began with the illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 remain one of the darkest chapters in India's colonial history, throwing the region into perpetual instability and violence.

He said October 27 marks the beginning of India's occupation of Kashmir and urged the people to observe it as Black Day.  He appealed to UN Secretary-General António Guterres to take cognizance of the worsening human rights situation in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, stressing that India's continued denial of the Kashmiris' right to self-determination has brought untold suffering, death, and destruction to the region. "Kashmiris are being brutally victimized by over one million Indian military and paramilitary personnel deployed across the territory," he added. 

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)