ISLAMABAD, 6 February 2008 — More than 200 protesters demanding self-determination for Kashmir marched on the Indian Embassy here yesterday as Pakistan observed Kashmir Solidarity Day highlighting the region’s plight.
The men holding placards and demanding freedom and chanting pro-democracy slogans marched into the capital’s heavily guarded diplomatic quarter and held a brief protest outside the Indian mission.
Escorting the protesters were Pakistani police who searched them for weapons as they entered the diplomatic enclave but otherwise did not interfere with the annual Kashmir Solidarity Day march.
“More than 10,000 people are missing... We’ve had 93,000 dead in the past 20 years,” said Syed Yousuf Naseem, leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, a Kashmiri umbrella organization.
“There will be no peace in this region without a resolution to the Kashmiri issue,” he said.
Separatist fighters have been battling security forces in Indian Kashmiri since 1989 and tens of thousands of people have been killed.
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been the cause of two of the three wars India and Pakistan have fought since 1947, and still lies at the heart of the nuclear-armed neighbors’ rivalry.
India regards the whole of Kashmir as an integral part of its territory but Pakistan wants Kashmiris to decide in a UN-mandated plebiscite whether to join Islamic Pakistan or Hindu-majority India.
Naseem said a solution to the Kashmir dispute was essential for peace in the region.
“We want to draw the interest of the international community. Peace will not come to this region without resolving the Kashmir issue,” he said.
Naseem said people in Indian Kashmir were being oppressed by Indian security forces. “There is no free movement, all the fundamental rights are curbed... in the one hand they have a gun and in the other they have a license to kill any Kashmiri,” he said of Indian troops.
India denies any systematic abuse in the region and says at least 85 soldiers found guilty of human rights violations in Kashmir have been punished since the revolt against Indian rule broke out.
India and Pakistan launched a peace process in early 2004 but, while ties have warmed, no substantial progress has been made on Kashmir.
As a mark of respect for the fighters in Kashmir, a one-minute silence was observed throughout Pakistan at 10 a.m. with all rail and road traffic coming to a halt.
As in the capital Islamabad, demonstrations were staged and rallies taken out in almost all cities and towns of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir with demand for cessation of atrocities by Indian forces in Kashmir.
— Additional input from agencies
