Syed Ali Gilani calls for complete shutdown on Feb 9, 11 in IOK

SRINAGAR (KMS) – In Occupied Kashmir, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Syed All Gilani has called for a complete shutdown on the occasion of martyrdom anniversaries of liberation leaders, Muhammad Afzal Guru and Muhammad Maqbool Butt (on February 9 and 11) to reaffirm the pledge to the carry forward the martyrs’ mission and the freedom movement. Muhammad Maqbool Butt was hanged by India in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail on February 11, 1984. Muhammad Afzal Guru was executed in the same jail on February 9, 2013, for their role in the Kashmir freedom movement. The bodies of the two leaders remain buried on the premises of the jail. Syed All Gilani, in a statement issued in Srinagar, described the executions of Muhammad Afzal Guru and Muhammad Maqbool Butt as the most shameful acts of the Indian government and a blot on the so-called democratic face of India. He also urged the global community and human rights bodies to impress upon New Delhi to return the mortal remains of the two martyred leaders from Delhi’s Tihar jail for a decent burial in their homeland. He said that India’s brutal and fascist face and its nefarious designs vis-à-vis Kashmir had become even clearer after its unilateral and illegal measures of August 5, last year. He said that the ongoing inhuman siege imposed by New Delhi in Kashmir shows that India is an imperialist and hegemonic state which wants to suppress genuine political dissent by use of sheer force without caring for international treaties and pledges. The APHC chairman said that Muhammad Maqbool Butt and Muhammad Afzal Guru were sent to the gallows only to subdue the voice of the people of Kashmir and to make them know that they could also meet the same fate if they continue asking freedom from Indian yoke. However, he added, India should keep it mind that martyrdoms are an inseparable part of the ongoing liberation movement and that the blood of martyrs only energizes the resistance. Stating that both the martyred leaders and thousands of other martyrs are real heroes of the Kashmiri people, Syed Ali Gilani pointed out that India even after using all its military might had failed to crush the Kashmiris’ passion for freedom in the past and it would bite the dust in future as well. Stressing that no power on earth can extinguish the flame of freedom lit by martyrs like Maqbool Butt and Afzal Guru, he emphasized that it was duty of the world community to come forward and help resolve the lingering Kashmir dispute according to the internationally accepted right to self-determination.