Rawalakot (Pakistan-occupied Jammu Kashmir), June 7: Pakistani forces today killed and injured several Kashmiris in occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) as they were protesting against the atrocities and oppression being committed by the illegal occupier of the region.
Protests were organised across the PoJK to express resentment against the atrocities and humiliation being meted out to the people of the occupied region by Pakistan.
Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), a conglomerate of various Kashmiri organisations, had given a call for an indefinite agitation to press Pakistan to end its interference in the affairs of PoJK, besides other things.
JAAC had declared that the agitation would be peaceful from their side.
At the same time, they had warned that if Pakistani State resorted to force, the protesters would not behave like “(Mahatma) Gandhi”.
“We want to be so peaceful that even a flower pot will not be broken by us. But we will not behave like Gandhi that anyone can hit us and get away… We will teach them a lesson,” said a leader of the protest at a public meeting in Rawalakot amid cheers from the crowd.
As apprehended by the organisers of the agitation, thousands of Pakistani military personnel tried to crush the protest and chase away the participants.
But the dare-devil protesters refused to obey and stood their ground all over PoJK.
The Pakistani forces resorted to large-scale firing, including direct shooting at the protesters, and it resulted in the killing and wounding of several agitationists.
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Still, the protests are continuing even at night, with the Kashmiris repeatedly expressing the resolve not to be subdued anymore.
Reflecting a new resolve of determination, an elderly Kashmiri man, while addressing a crowd, said the time of suffering the humiliation at the hands of Pakistan was over.
He asked the crowd whether Kashmiris should continue to suffer humiliation or choose death. He added the he himself would choose death over humiliation.
“We will choose death rather than live a humiliating life,” the crowd said in unison.
The agitation call has received strong support from the Kashmiri diaspora across the world and they staged protest in front of Pakistani Embassies and Consulates in various countries.
Even before it started, Pakistan had tried to crush the protest by arresting and raiding members and supporters of JAAC.
It had also put a lot of curbs across PoJK but to no avail.
Ahead of the protest day, Pakistan had sent tens of thousands of military personnel into PoJK, in addition to lakhs of those already present in the illegally occupied reigon.
Pakistan militarily captured the region, which is a part of Jammu and Kashmir, in October 1947 when the undivided region had not yet acceded to India. (NVI)
