Kashmir Solidarity Day observed in Ankara

By Faruk Zorlu

ANKARA (AA) – The embassy of Pakistan organized an event to commemorate Kashmir Solidarity Day in Ankara on Saturday.

"Kashmiris will prevail in the fight for their legitimate rights and see the dawn of freedom one day," Pakistan's ambassador to Turkiye Syrus Sajjad Qazi said.

"In any contest between force and love for freedom, perseverance and love for freedom will always win. Struggle for freedom is a baton that one generation passes onto the next. One day Kashmir will see the dawn of freedom," the ambassador said.

"Pakistanis will stand with them until they get their right of self-determination. We know that India has not succeeded for 75 years. It may try this for the next 75 years, but it will not succeed."

Kashmiris and Pakistanis around the world observe Kashmir Solidarity Day on Feb. 5 every year to extend moral support to people in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.

The Pakistani envoy said Kashmir Solidarity Day serves as a "stark reminder of the broken promises and unfulfilled commitments made to the Kashmiri people by India for holding a plebiscite when it took the matter for the first time to the UN in January 1948."

"If only the UN Security Council resolutions had been implemented, we would all have been spared this tragedy," he added.

On Jan. 5, 1949, following a full-scale war between Pakistan and India in 1948, the UN Security Council pledged that an UN-supervised plebiscite would be held to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, but the exercise was never carried out.

- Call for accountability

In their messages read out at the embassy's event, Pakistan's President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan urged the international community to "take practical steps to hold India accountable for its "gross human rights violations" in Kashmir and fulfill the promises made through the UN to the Kashmiri people.

Alvi and Khan reiterated that Pakistan would give full political, moral and diplomatic support to the people of Kashmir until the issue is resolved in accordance with UNSC resolutions.

The event also included an exhibition of pictures meant to show the treatment of Kashmiris by Indian forces, including a photo of the infamous April 2017 incident when a Kashmiri man was tied to an Indian army vehicle as a human shield.

- Disputed region

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.

Since they were partitioned in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars – in 1948, 1965 and 1971 – two of them over Kashmir.​​​​​​​

​​​​​​​Indian and Pakistani troops have also fought intermittently in the northern Siachen region since 1984. A cease-fire took effect in 2003.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights organizations, thousands have reportedly been killed in the conflict since 1989.​​​​​