Remarks by Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi, Ambassador of Pakistan to Turkey at the event organized by Youth Assembly of Konya to commemorate Kashmir Black Day, 26 October 2018

Mr. Ali Şahin, Chairman of Turkey-Pakistan Friendship Group in Turkish Parliament
Mr. Mehmet Aydin, Deputy Governor of Konya 
Mr. Ali Ziya Yalçınkaya , Deputy Mayor of Selçuklu Municipality of Konya 
Ladies & Gentlemen
Assalam-o-Alaikum

I wish to thank the Youth Assembly of Selchuklu, Konya, for organizing today’s event to show solidarity with the oppressed people of the Indian Occupied Kashmir.

Kashmiris in the Occupied Jammu & Kashmir as well as across the globe are observe the “Black Day” on 27 October every year to mark that infamous day in 1947, when India forcibly and illegally occupied the State of Jammu & Kashmir.

Jammu & Kashmir is an internationally recognized disputed territory. It remains one of the oldest unresolved issues on the agenda of the UN Security Council and it is the site of one of the worst human rights situations in the world.

Distinguished participants, 

Occupied Jammu & Kashmir is also one of the mostmilitarizedzones of the world. 

Over 700,000 Indian occupation forces, armed with lethal weapons and laws granting them complete immunity to perpetrator atrocities, have unlashed the worst state terrorism in Indian Occupied Kashmir. 

Since 1989, more than 95,000 Kashmiris have been killed by Indian security forces, many under custody. 

Thousands of mass graves have been discovered. 

More than 11,000 women have been raped and assaulted by the Indian occupation forces.

The martyrdom of young Kashmiri leader Burhan Wani on 8 July 2016 infused a new spirit to the indigenous Kashmiri freedom movement.

Since that day, 755 Kashmiris have been martyred and hundreds have been rendered blind through indiscriminate use of pellet guns. 

While all this goes on with impunity, the international media and human rights and humanitarian organizations are denied access to the occupied territory. 

To divert international attention from its own atrocities, and to mislead the world opinion, India has been trying to portray the legitimate Kashmiri struggle for self-determination as terrorism. 

This is a travesty, which would neither undermine the legitimacy of the Kashmiri cause, nor stop the Kashmiris from seeking justice.   

Generations of Kashmiris are being punished for demanding their inalienable right to self-determination – a right repeatedly pledged to them in the shape of Security Council resolutions.

However, we all know that despite repeated attempts, no meaningful progress has been made in recent decades towards the implementation of these resolutions.  

India has exploited this collective failure by resorting to state-terrorism to suppress the legitimate aspirations of the Kashmiri people. 

Their long occupation and brutal suppression continues to haunt the conscience of humanity.

It is imperative for the international community to act immediately to stop the tragedy unfolding in Occupied Kashmir.

We hope the world will play its rightful role in ensuring a just, peaceful and durable solution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people and the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

A welcome development is a report released by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which chronicles the massive human rights violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir. 

Pakistan endorses the UN Report and calls for early institution of a Commission of Inquiry under UN auspices to investigate and fix responsibility. 

Lasting peace in South Asia is impossible without a just settlement of the Kashmir dispute based on the UN Security Council resolutions and the will of the Kashmiri people. 


Ladies and Gentlemen

The Kashmiris, and the people of Pakistan, deeply appreciate the support and solidarity they have always received from the government and people of Turkey. 

Turkey, as the chair of OIC, has also been pursuing the initiative to send a fact-finding mission to Kashmir.

Yet again, the presence of such a large number of participants in the observance of “Kashmir Black Day” today is a further manifestation of Turkey’s abiding commitment to this noble cause.

On its part, Pakistan would continue to extend maximum political, diplomatic and moral support to the people of Kashmir.

We hope our combined efforts would help shake the world conscience and pave the way for the dawn of peace, hope and freedom for the struggling people of Occupied Jammu & Kashmir.

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