DNA
VIENNA: The Embassy of Pakistan in Vienna organized a webinar today to mark the Kashmir Black Day. It was attended by members of Pakistani and Kashmir diaspora in Austria and Slovakia, as well as representatives of media and local think tanks.
Five distinguished speakers from Pakistan participated in the webinar as panelists. These included Syed Faiz Naqshbandi, attorney at Law and Convener of All Parties Hurriyet Conference, Islamabad, Dr Saif ur Rehman Malik, Director at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad, Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmad, former Vice Chancellor of Sargodha University, Dr. Amna Mahmood, professor and the Dean of Social Sciences at the International Islamic University, Islamabad, and Ms. Mushaal Hussein Mullick, prominent Kashmiri activist and the wife of Mr. Mohammad Yasin Malik, Chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front.
In their remarks, these speakers brought out the various dimensions of the Jammu & Kashmir dispute. Syed Faiz Naqshbandi highlighted the mass human rights violations and draconian laws which are being used to crush the Kashmiris’ struggle for the right to self determination. Dr Saif ur Rehman Malik focused on the illegal and unilateral action taken by India on August 2019 which had further exacerbated the plight of the people of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmad said that India had had never engaged in good faith efforts aimed at resolving the Jammu & Kashmir dispute in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people. Dr. Amna Mahmood pointed out that reign of terror inflicted on the people of IIOJK had exposed India’s hollow claims of being the largest democracy in the world. Ms. Mushaal Hussein Mullick said that the despite their immense suffering, the courage and will of the women of Kashmir remained unbroken and that they were the champions of Kashmiris’ struggle for self-determination. She said that the BJP regime in India was trying to render the people of IIJK leaderless by targeting their leadership and was also taking measures to alter the demographic structure of the region.
Ambassador Aftab Ahmad Khokher also spoke at the webinar and read out the Kashmir Black Day messages of the President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Pakistan. He paid homage to the sacrifices rendered by the valiant people of IIOJK and said that the leadership and people of Pakistan remained steadfast in extending moral, political and diplomatic support to them in their just struggle for the right to self determination. He thanked the speakers and participants of the webinar the purpose of which was to condemn Indian actions of 27th October 1947 and continued state terrorism in IIOJK as well as to urge the international community to raise its voice in support of the long-suffering people of IIOJK and play its due role in enabling them to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination, as guaranteed to them in the UN Security Council resolutions.
