Pakistan Day – Sunday, 23 March, 2014

Kashmir: The Unfinished Agenda
of Pakistan’s Independence

Pakistani Youth Vows To Take Kashmir’s Voice of Freedom To The World.

ISLAMABAD – On Pakistan Day, Youth Forum For Kashmir [YFK], Pakistan’s first pro-Kashmir lobbying group run by Kashmiri and Pakistani youth, vows to take Kashmir’s voice of freedom to the world.

Pakistan and Kashmir are a natural geographical, historical, ethnic, and cultural extension of each other. Like all Pakistanis, Kashmiris too participated in the Pakistan Resolution of 23rd March 1940 in Lahore.

The Kashmir Delegation to United Nation Human Rights Council’s 25th session currently underway in Geneva has noticed this year a new international interest in Kashmir after a period of dormancy over the last five years. The hate crimes against Kashmiri students at Indian universities has drawn wide international attention and helped renew interest in the international dispute of Kashmir.

Kashmir is an unfinished agenda of Pakistan’s independence and the partition of Indo-Pak subcontinent. It is the ‘jugular vein’ of Pakistan. It is a source of strategically important rivers for Pakistan that play a critical role in the food and energy security of the country.

But, above all, Kashmir is the story a brave people who chose to act as Pakistan’s first line of defense and continue to do so by choice; a brave people who continue to resist the Indian occupation army of more than half a million. Even today, Kashmiri children cannot play outside their houses. They do not have parks or entertainment. Half of all schools in Kashmir are Indian military bunkers. Even when studying in colleges inside India, young Kashmiri men and women risk their lives by rooting for Pakistan. On Pakistan’s Independence Day, they wave the Green and Crescent in front of Indian occupation soldiers, and often set their watches to PST: Pakistan Standard Time.

Kashmiris have great love for Pakistan. And Pakistanis feel the pain of Kashmir.

On this Pakistan Day, we want Kashmiris to know that our joy and celebration will remain incomplete until India quits Kashmir and Kashmiris get their freedom.

Long Live Pakistan. Pakistan Zindabad.

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