Full preparations in Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Indian-occupied Kashmir to celebrate Pakistan’s 68^th Independence Day

Kashmiri Youth: “Kashmir is the Unfinished Agenda of Pakistan’s Independence”

Kashmir Celebrates 14 August with Pakistan

ISLAMABAD & GENEVA, 13 August 2014 – The massive presence of Indian occupation army in Kashmir has not stopped young Kashmiris from making preparations to celebrate Pakistan Independence Day through public displays of allegiance to Pakistan.

Kashmiri youth have painted a Pakistan flag on the historic Hari Parbat Fort in Srinagar on the occasion of Pakistan Independence Day, while Pakistan’s biggest Kashmiri lobbying group, YFK, has reminded the world that Kashmir is the unfinished agenda of Pakistan’s independence.

The Youth Forum for Kashmir-YFK, in a statement released in Islamabad and at the United Nations in Geneva on Aug.13, has said that “Kashmir is the unfinished agenda of Pakistan’s independence.” The group, which is run by young Kashmiris and Pakistanis, said that Kashmiris passed a resolution in Srinagar on 19 July 1947 to join Pakistan. This resolution was passed by Kashmiri leaders, and came a month before the actual declaration of Pakistani independence a month later.

“Today, Kashmiris under India’s military occupation send a clear message to New Delhi and to the international community,” said Shaista Safi, a YFK lobbyist from Baramulla, Indian occupied Kashmir. “This message says that we, the Kashmiris, know what we want, that India should know this by now, and that the international community should implement the UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir.”

Young Kashmiris have made preparations to mark Pakistan Independence Day on 14 August across Indian-occupied Kashmir. Each year, Kashmiris make public displays of celebrating 14 August and raise black flags on the 15^th to show disassociation with India on that country’s national day.

Ahmed Quraishi, Executive Director of YFK, urged India’s government, the army, and the occupation administration in Kashmir to exercise restraint in the Valley on Aug. 14.

“We ask India to allow young Kashmiris to publicly express their feelings in Kashmir on Pakistan Independence Day. This right should be unhindered and should not lead to harassment or intimidation of any kind,” Quraishi said.

In its statement released in Geneva, the YFK;

• URGES India’s occupation army to allow the peaceful Kashmiri youth to exercise their right to wave flags, use firecrackers, and generally indulge in expressing their feelings on the occasion of Pakistan Independence Day.
• RECALLS the huge sacrifices that the Kashmiri nation has given for the cause of freedom in the face of one of the world’s biggest armies, the Indian Army, which invaded and occupied Kashmir in August 1947, and launched a cruel regime of terror and murder in 1989, to stop Kashmiris from demanding freedom.
• STRESSES the need for the international community to take note of the world’s biggest peaceful civil disobedience movement, where Kashmiris refuse to cooperate with the military occupation authorities of India.
• INSISTS that India’s military occupation end immediately, and that New Delhi meet international standards of justice and fair play by withdrawing the occupation army from Srinagar and all other Kashmiri cities, and allow Kashmiris to take charge of their government, as a first step toward resolving the international dispute in accordance with UNSC resolutions.
• ASKS India to rise up to its regional and international responsibilities by diffusing the source of chronic tension and instability in the region, which is Kashmir. Resolving Kashmir would ensure that India would be at peace with Kashmiris and with Pakistan, which is a party to the Kashmir dispute in accordance to UNSC resolutions.
• DEMANDS that the United Nations Security Council seize itself of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Kashmir, where India’s military occupation authorities have been found involved in arbitrary and extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, denial of basic civil liberties, and the use of rape as a weapon of war.

An immediate and urgent action by India on Kashmir will help normalize relations in South Asia and set a positive precedent that would give dividends of peace to the entire region.

The YFK is a grassroots lobbying group led by young Kashmiris and Pakistanis working to ensure justice to Kashmiris living under Indian military occupation.