Pakistan observes Indian Independence Day as Black Day

LAHORE, Aug 15, 2019, Pakistan Today. A day after Pakistan celebrated its 72nd Independence Day as ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’ to express solidarity with Kashmiris, the Indian Independence Day today is being observed as ‘Black Day’ across the country and de facto border – Line of Control (LoC) – in occupied Kashmir, reported the Pakistan Today.

The decision to dedicate Independence Day to the Kashmiris and their “just struggle for their right of self-determination” was made during a National Security Committee (NSC) meeting on August 7.

The ‘Black Day’ is observed in protest against the Indian move to abrogate Article 370 of its constitution and strip occupied Kashmir of its “special status” through a rushed presidential decree on August 5. The “illegal move”, as Pakistan dubbed it, further witnessed the division of Jammu & Kashmir Valley into two union territories.

Black flags will be hoisted across the country including Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) in protest to nefarious Indian designs to destroy regional stability in addition to protest rallies.

Seminars will also be organized to highlight the plight of oppressed Kashmiris who are under strict curfew and communication blackout for the tenth consecutive day. Fearing unrest, India snapped telecommunications and imposed a curfew in the part of Kashmir it controls on August 4, a day before the surprise presidential order.

Speaking to APP, a spokesperson for AJK government said, “Participants of the protest rallies will wear black bands around their arms while black flags will be hoisted atop the buildings by the protesting Kashmiris at both sides of the LoC.”

On August 5, making a mockery of so-called world’s largest democracy, India’s Narendra Modi government unilaterally changed the constitutional status of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region by revoking the occupied region’s special status through a presidential order, stoking pro-freedom sentiments in Kashmiris and putting the entire subcontinent at risk of a nuclear war.

President Ram Nath Kovind, in “concurrence” with the “Jammu and Kashmir government”, promulgated Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019 which states that provisions of the Indian Constitution are applicable in the state.

The President issued Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019 which comes into force “at once”, and shall “supersede the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954”.

“All the provisions of the Constitution” shall apply in relation to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, it said.

Home Minister Amit Shah, who is also the president of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), announced the revocation amid an uproar in two houses of Parliament, Lok Sabha, the Lower House, and Rajya Sabha, the Upper House, while Kashmir was under a historic curfew forcing thousands of natives inside their homes and deprived of all means to communicate with the outside world.