Hundreds of activists gathered in front of the Eifel Tower in Paris to condemn the scrapping of a constitutional provision by India that granted special status to Indian-held Kashmir.
The protesters at the demonstration organised by the EU-Pak Friendship Federation Europe and Jammu and Kashmir Forum called the Indian step of abrogation of Articles 370 and 35-A not only a violation of UN resolutions and Geneva Convention but also a brach of the Indian constitution and the verdicts of the Indian Supreme Court. They said India was conspiring to change demography of Kashmir by bringing Hindus from other parts of India into the occupied valley and expelling Kashmirs from their own homes.Speaking on the occasion, EU-Pak Friendship Federation Europe Chairman Chaudhry Perveiz Iqbal Losar said India cannot subjugate the people of Kashmir for long by sheer power of the gun. He said no unilateral step by the government of India can change the disputed status of Kashmir as enshrined in the United Nations Security Council resolutions, adding that the step will never be acceptable to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Losar decried regressive measures to change Kashmir’s demographic structure as well as the recent surge in unprovoked firing and shelling on unarmed civilian population across the Line of Control and use of cluster bombs by Indian forces in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. He said there are voices from within India itself which are crying foul over the move which scrapped Kashmir of its special status.
Other speakers demanded that India stop the brutalisation of the people of Kashmir through killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, mass blinding by pellet guns, and use of rape as an instrument of war. They called upon the international community to warn India to refrain from undertaking any irresponsible, unilateral actions that may lead to a dangerous escalation that will have far reaching impact not only for South Asia but the entire world.
