Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday said that Pakistan will observe July 19 as a ‘black day’ to protest against ‘killings’, referring to those who died during protests after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in Kashmir.
The special Cabinet meeting decided to observe nationwide black day on July 19 to mark complete solidarity with Kashmiris. Sharif termed the “movement of Kashmiris as a movement of freedom”.
“Pakistan would continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support for Kashmiris in their just struggle for right to self-determination,” the prime minister said.
“The Prime Minister termed Burhan Wani as martyr of independence movement,” Radio Pakistan reported.
He said, the “Indian brutalities will give impetus to the freedom struggle and Kashmiri people will get their right to self-determination for which the whole Pakistani nation is standing behind them.”
Speaking in the wake of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani in an encounter in Anantnag, Sharif had said that the plebiscite should be held so that the people of Jammu and Kashmir can decide whether they wanted to be with India or align with Pakistan.
While voicing “concern and deep sorrow” over the killing of Burhan Wani, Sharif had said the “massacre of citizens by Indian forces and use of brutal force against Kashmir is regrettable”.
He was referring to the death of people in Kashmir in clashes with security forces, post Wani’s killing.
“Unarmed Kashmiris cannot be deterred from their rightful struggle for self determination at gunpoint” and that the right to self determination was justified by UN resolutions, Sharif had said.
Pakistan’s envoy to the UN Maleeha Lodhi met Under Secretary General Edmond Mullet, the Chef de Cabinet of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon here and pushed for the probe, according to a press release issued by the Pakistani Mission to the UN yesterday.
“At the United Nations, Pakistan called for an independent and transparent inquiry into the extra judicial killings in Indian occupied Kashmir, calling the situation there a grave threat to peace and security,” it said.
