RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday observed “Kashmir Solidarity Day” with huge public rallies across the country to express support of the Pakistani nation to the just struggle of the Kashmiri people for their inalienable right to self-determination under the United Nations resolutions.

On the occasion, Prime Minister Imran Khan addressed a public gathering at Kotli in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

Earlier, President Arif Alvi also addressed a session of the AJK Legislative Assembly in Muzaffarabad.

He also led a solidarity march alongside AJK PM Raja Farooq Haider and AJK President Sardar Masood Khan. Solidarity walks were arranged in several other cities and the four provincial capitals, whereas, human chains were formed at Kohala and other important points linking Pakistan and Azad Kashmir.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi led a rally in the capital along with Information Minister Shibli Faraz, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, and National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser.

Talking to reporters during the procession, Qureshi said the media's role in raising voice for Kashmiris was becoming more important by the day.

Addressing the Kashmiris through the media, he assured them of the Pakistani nation’s support in their struggle for self-determination.

“We understand that you are suffering from oppression and facing difficulties,” Qureshi said, adding, “You will be successful because you are with the truth”.

The foreign minister said that India had always tried to break people's courage but it would fail in its attempts to oppress the Kashmiris.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi paid tribute to the “just struggle of our Kashmiri family” against the Indian forces and said: “No level of blackout and censorship can silence the strong, unflinching resilience of Kashmiris' in the face of such unspeakable atrocities by the rogue Indian state.”

He vowed that Pakistan would “never relent” its support for the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.

“Kashmir is for the Kashmiris,” he declared.

The foreign minister added that the incumbent Indian administration of Narendra Modi, which was “busy fortifying [its] policy of hate, censor and repression across India, Kashmir and beyond,” could not silence the world.

“Each day fascist Indian regime wakes up to international condemnation of their brutal campaigns at every global forum and in every headline,” he said.