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Writes Wallace Mawire
The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on 5 February 2025 observed the Kashmir Solidarity Day at the Embassy premises in Harare to honour the resilience of the Kashmiri people and their fight for justice and against oppression allegedly perpetrated by India.
The ongoing repression in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir highlights the plight of the Kashmiri people.
According to His Excellency, Murad Baseer, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Zimbabwe, on the 5th of February, Kashmir Solidarity Day is observed to commemorate the unwavering resilience of the Kashmiri people in their pursuit of justice, self-determination, and freedom from oppression.
Ambassador Baseer said that for decades now, Kashmir has endured settler colonial policies aimed at displacing, disempowering, and silencing its people.
He said that India’s imperialistic presence in Jammu and Kashmir, an internationally recognized disputed territory, has resulted in widespread and systematic violence.
‘This includes deaths of innocent and unarmed civilians, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, mass graves, and torture,’ Ambassador Baseer said.
According to the Kashmir Institute of International Relations, in a document titled: ‘Kashmir 35 Years of Turmoil’, it has been 77 years since the territory of Jammu and Kashmir was occupied by India against the will of its people.
The Institute said that on October 27, 1947, the Indian state, in brazen violation of international law, invaded Kashmir and took control of approximately 55% of the land area of the state including Jammu, the Kashmir Valley, and Ladakh.
It says that ever since, the region has been bleeding under military occupation and settler colonialism used by the Indian state as an instrument of oppression that seeks to control, by any means, all of Kashmir, its people, land, and resources.
The Ambassador said that India has denied Kashmir the right to a referendum as mandated by the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, specifically the UNCIP resolution of 5 January 1949, which called for a free and impartial plebiscite to determine the future of Jammu and Kashmir.
The solidarity day was attended by representatives of the Embassies of Angola, Zambia, Palestine, Indonesia, Turkiye, and Nicaragua, who stood in support of the Kashmir people’s need for freedom.
