ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s government organized a “Kashmir Solidarity Walk” in Islamabad on Monday to protest India’s 2019 move to revoke the special autonomous status of the part of Kashmir it controls, which divided the region into two federal territories five years ago.
India’s sudden move divided the region into Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir federal territories, both ruled directly by New Delhi without a legislature of their own and run by bureaucrats.
The move’s immediate implications were that India’s only Muslim-majority region lost its flag and constitution. Since then, New Delhi has enacted a slew of administrative changes, including a residency law that made it possible for Indian nationals to become permanent residents of the region.
Kashmir has been divided between Pakistan and India since their independence from the British rule in 1947, but both countries claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety. India’s move to scrap Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomy invited an angry response from Pakistan, which suspended bilateral trade with its arch-rival and downgraded diplomatic ties with New Delhi following what it said was India’s “unilateral” move.
“Pakistan will take every step politically, culturally and diplomatically which will be necessary for our Kashmiri brothers and sisters,” Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar told participants at the solidarity walk, which was held from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) office in Islamabad till the D-Chowk area.
Dar challenged India to hold a plebiscite in Indian-controlled Kashmir “immediately” to prove its claims of being a democratic country.
“Such tricks and moves cannot counter the sentiments and bravery of our Kashmiri brothers and sisters,” he said.
In his message on the occasion, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he saluted the “indomitable courage” of the Kashmiri people that had enabled them to withstand every “Indian attempt to subjugate them.”
“There is no doubt that India’s coercive methods have failed to diminish their yearning for the realization of their inalienable right to self-determination,” he said, urging the international community to press New Delhi to halt human rights violations in Kashmir, reverse unilateral actions of August 5, 2019, and implement the United Nations Security Council resolutions on the territory.
New Delhi and Islamabad accuse each other of stoking militancy and espionage to undermine each other and the nuclear-armed neighbors have fought multiple wars over the region.
“History has proven, time and again, that durable peace in South Asia remains contingent upon the settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” Sharif said in his statement. “In the interest of lasting peace and security in South Asia, India must move from dispute denial to dispute resolution.”
The Pakistan premier reiterated that his country would continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people until the realization of their right to self-determination.
