MT Desk: Continued Indian illegal occupation and state terrorism in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, spanning over a period of the past thirty-seven years, have forced the Kashmiri people to abandon their homes and live a refugee life outside of the territory.
A report released by Kashmir Media Service on the World Refugee Day, today, said when the world is observing the day across the globe, over forty thousand people of Jammu and Kashmir, including men, women and children, have been living a homeless life since 1989.
Hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Jammu alone were expelled by Dogra forces and Hindutva RSS in 1947. Over 3.5 million people took refuge in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan and in the UK and other parts of the world.
The report maintained that the IIOJK’s Muslim-majority had been facing threat to its existence due to the forced expulsion and Indian BJP government’s new domicile law, which is aimed at changing the territory’s demography and turning it into a Hindu state.
The report, while urging the global community to take notice of India’s nefarious and anti-Kashmir designs in IIOJK, said Kashmiri people are suffering because of the unresolved Kashmir dispute.
APHC-AJK chapter and other Kashmiri migrant organizations in Muzaffarabad said that for the last 78 years, lakhs of Kashmiris have been forced to leave their homes and live as refugees. They demanded of the UN Security Council and international community to play their role for the settlement of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the Kashmiris’ aspirations.
Meanwhile, President of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party Mehbooba Mufti has urged the Indian government to show compassion towards ailing Hurriyat leader Shabbir Ahmad Shah.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Mehbooba Mufti, citing Shabbir Shah’s “critical health condition”, called for immediate measures to ensure adequate medical care and requested that his family be allowed to remain by his side during this difficult time.
“Shabir Shah, incarcerated in notorious Tihar Jail for a considerable period, is reportedly suffering from prostate cancer and needs urgent surgery. Deeply unfortunate that the courts have barred his family from being present during his treatment,” Mehbooba said in a post on X.
She appealed to the Indian Home Secretary Govind Mohan to intervene on humanitarian grounds.
Shabir Shah, 71, the founder of the Democratic Freedom Party, has been in jail since 2017. He was arrested by the Indian Enforcement Directorate in a fake case of money laundering in July 2017.
He is presently lodged in Tihar Jail, New Delhi. The government has also banned his Democratic Freedom Party as an unlawful association under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).