Tributes being paid to Afzal Guru on his eighth martyrdom anniversary

SRINAGAR (Web Desk) - In Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), Hurriyat leaders and organizations continued to pay rich tributes to prominent liberal leaders Shaheed Muhammad Afzal Guru and Shaheed Mohammad Maqbool Butt on their martyrdom anniversaries.

According to the KMS, Senior Hurriyat leader Ghulam Mohammad Khan Sopori while addressing a function in memory of Shaheed Mohammad Maqbool Butt, Shaheed Mohammad Afzal Guru and other martyrs of Kashmir in Srinagar said that the cause for which they sacrificed their lives requires the participation of the entire population in the struggle for freedom.

He said that due to the sacrifices of Kashmiri martyrs, a just and lasting solution to the Kashmir dispute is under discussion at global level. Khan Sopori reiterated his demand for return of the remains of the two great sons of Kashmir buried in Delhi’s Tihar jail.

Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference Chairman Shabbir Ahmed Dar, Vice Chairman Sharifuddin and General Secretary Shaikh Muzaffar in a joint statement also paid tributes to the two proud sons of soil. They said that the two resistance icons were sent to the gallows by India in infamous Tihar jail with absolutely no case against them and no fair trial.

Khawaja Firdous, leader of All Parties Hurriyat Conference and chairman of Democratic Political Movement, in a statement in Srinagar, while paying homage to Mohammad Afzal Guru and Mohammad Maqbool Butt said that Kashmiri people would continue their struggle till fulfillment of the mission of martyrs. He said that the Indian government had illegally hanged Afzal Guru on this very day in 2013 in the New Delhi’s notorious Tihar Jail. He said that the Indian Supreme Court had itself admitted that the allegations leveled against Shaheed Guru were not substantiated but the court under pressure from the Indian government and Hindu extremists, sentenced him to death.

Jammu and Kashmir Tehreek-e-Istiqlal General Secretary Abdul Hameed accompanied by a delegation visited the house of Shaheed Muhammad Afzal Guru. He offered condolences to the family of Afzal Guru and offered Fateha for the departed soul. Talking to the family of the martyred leader, he said that the sacrifice of Afzal Guru would always be remembered.

Hurriyat leader Farida Bahanji also demanded the bodies of the martyred leaders so that they could be buried in the occupied valley in accordance with Islamic values.

Jammu and Kashmir National Front (JKNF) while paying tribute to Muhammad Afzal Guru in a statement said that the hanging of Guru was a ruthless murder of justice. The execution of Afzal Guru, it said, reinforced the point that there was no justice for Kashmiris in the Indian courts. Reiterating the Kashmiris’ pledge to take the ongoing liberation struggle to its logical end, the JKNF said that the people of Kashmir would follow in footprints of the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of their motherland.

Jammu and Kashmir Islami Tanzeem-e-Azaid in a written statement to the newspapers demanded of the global human rights watchdog to stop India from committing genocide of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

India had hanged Muhammad Afzal Guru on February 9, 2013 and Muhammad Maqbool Butt on February 11, 1984 in Tihar Jail, New Delhi for their role in the Kashmir Independence Movement and buried their bodies in the jail premises.