Maqbool Butt’s death anniversary observed

LAHORE: Kashmiri organisations on Friday mourned the 21st death anniversary of Kashmiri freedom leader Muhammad Maqbool Butt, who was hanged in Tihar Jail in 1984 by the Indian forces.

Freedom organisations, including the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Kashmir Muhaze-a-Rai Shumari, Voice of Kashmir, Dukhtran-a-Kashmir and Peoples Party Azad Kashmir chapter, staged protests in different areas of the city. They pledged that they would continue the Kashmiri leader’s struggle for freedom. The main function was held at the JKLF party office and was attended by a large number of Kashmiri leaders. JKLF Punjab president Syed Faisal Shah Nazki, Kashmir Muhaz-a-Rai Shumari (KMRS) president Arif Kamal Butt, Musood Alam, Rehana Kanwal Butt from Dukhtran Kashmir and Gulam Mahiuddin Dewan from PPP Azad Kashmir addressed the seminar.

Addressing the gathering, Kamal Butt said that India and Pakistan had sabotaged the Kashmiri people’s freedom rights for their own vested interests. He said that since the last century, the people of Kashmir were striving against regimes such as Dogra Raj, Sikh Raj, and the British government and now from India and Pakistan. Butt said that the Pakistani government had no right to impose their policies on Kashmir because under the UN charter and the doctrine of Indo-Pak independence, Kashmir was declared an independent state.

Nazki said the Kashmiri people and leaders were convinced that an independent Kashmir was the only solution to the Kashmir issue. Nazki said that Pakistani intelligence agencies were planning to sabotage the Kashmiri movement. He said that the Indian leadership was not prepared to listen to the international community and the Pakistani government had forgotten Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s message stating that the Kashmiri people could join either India or Pakistan according to their wishes. staff report