In occupied Kashmir, Hurriyat Conference has called for complete strike on Friday

In occupied Kashmir, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference has called for complete strike on Friday, July 24, to send a clear message to India that the people of Jammu and Kashmir reject its illegal occupation of their homeland.

An APHC spokesman in a statement issued in Srinagar strongly denounced India’s attempts to change the territorial integrity and demographic composition of occupied Kashmir, provision of domicile certificates to non-locals and construction of more than 200,000 houses to settle them, killing and arrest of youth and other human rights violation by Indian troops in the territory.

He said that on the day, pro-freedom slogans would be raised from mosques and shrines and a complete blackout would be observed from Maghrib [evening] to Isha [night] prayers against the Modi government’s plan of settling non-locals in the territory and granting of domicile certificates to them.

The spokesman strongly reacted to the reports that people across the territory especially living near military camps were being forcibly evicted from their lands and steps were being taken for the construction of around 200,000 houses for RSS goons and non-Kashmiri workers on the grabbed land. He reiterated his strong opposition to such coercive moves, saying that India was following the Israeli policy in occupied Kashmir and was snatching land from the Kashmiri people and settling the armed Hindus brought from India on this land.

He, however, made it clear that as long as a single Indian soldier was present in the occupied territory, the Kashmiris would continue their resistance, through thick and thin.

The APHC spokesman maintained that all these moves were affecting the territorial integrity and demographic profile of Jammu and Kashmir and these actions were also in violation of the UN resolutions on Kashmir. He said, the people of Kashmir through their reaction on July 24 would convey to the world that they reject any such unilateral action.

The spokesman while hailing the resolve and morale of the Kashmiri people asked them to send a clear message by lodging a strong protest on the day to India that they would not accept its illegal occupation over Jammu and Kashmir in any circumstances. He appealed to the imams and khateebs of mosques to lead public demonstrations after prayers on Friday against India’s repressive moves. He also urged people to forge greater unity in their ranks to carry forward the ongoing freedom movement in an organized manner.