ISLAMABAD: All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) reiterated the call for a shutdown in occupied Kashmir and a march towards the grave of veteran pro-freedom leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani at Hyderpora town of capital Srinagar on the eve of his first death anniversary on Thursday.
In a statement, Molvi Bashir Ahmad Irfani, general secretary of APHC, urged the people of Kashmir living on either side of the Line of Control (LoC) and abroad to hold demonstrations to expose India’s crimes against humanity in the occupied region.
He said Geelani was the leader of the century who dedicated his life and sacrificed everything for the sacred cause of freedom. His struggle and sacrifice is the role model for the generation to come, he added.
Irfani said India can kill the people of Kashmir but cannot defeat their spirit and passion for freedom. He appealed to the United Nations, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and international rights organisations to take cognisance of rights violations by India in Kashmir, and take immediate and concrete steps to stop Indian state terrorism.
Aga Syed Yusuf, a senior leader of APHC, in a statement, said the best way to pay tribute to Geelani is to accomplish his mission of freedom from India and resolution of the dispute as per aspirations of the people.
He said that Geelani dedicated his whole life to the freedom cause and New Delhi kept him under house detention until his death.
In violation of basic human rights, Yusuf said, Geelani was not even provided medical facilities during house detention.
He appealed to the people to arrange prayer sessions and recitation of the Quran in their houses and at mosques for the departed souls.
Yusuf said the time is ripe for the international community to come forward and facilitate a settlement of the Kashmir dispute to pave the way for durable peace in South Asia and avert a nuclear catastrophe between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India.
He said that peace in the region is linked to the settlement of the Kashmir dispute from its historical perspective.
Syed Bashir Ahmad Andrabi, chairman of the Democratic Political Movement, said Geelani was a great leader and freedom icon who inculcated the spirit of freedom among the Kashmiri people. He was an influential orator and committed freedom leader, he added.
APHC leaders Khadim Hussain and Syed Sibte Shabbir Qummi in a joint statement in Srinagar while pledging support to shut down and the march towards Hyderpora on Thursday, denounced New Delhi’s “fascist measures” in the region.
They said New Delhi has unleashed a reign of terror to convert the region’s Muslim majority into a minority.
Other APHC leaders including Farida Behanji, Yasmeen Raja, Zamruda Habib, Abdul Ahad Parra, Firdous Shah, Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League chair Ghulam Muhammad Khan Sopori, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir and APHC-AJK leader Nisar Mirza in their statements also paid tributes to Geelani.
