SRINAGAR: Senior All Parties Hurriyat Conference leader and Chairman Democratic Freedom Party Shabir Ahmed Shah has appealed to the people of Kashmir to observe 15 August as a black day to convey a strong message to the world that Kashmiris do not accept India’s hegemony and its illegal control over the territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

In a message from Tihar Jail, Shabbir Ahmed Shah while terming India as usurper said that the country that has deprived millions of Kashmiris from their fundamental rights and snatched their fundamental freedoms by occupying their motherland has no justification, whatsoever, to observe Independence Day.

“India has no moral right to celebrate Independence Day, it has forcibly occupied our land”, Shah said, adding that India’s illegal occupation of our motherland was a brazen violation of the international law and the UN resolutions.

“India, which claims to be a democratic country, has been remorselessly treating Kashmiris as slaves”, the APHC leader said, adding that Kashmir has been turned into an open-air prison where Kashmiris live without rights.

“The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir and its population has been taken hostage by the occupation forces for the past three years”, he said adding that political leaders members of civil society, academia, rights activists and lawyers who were arrested before and after 5th August 2019 continue to rot in jails far away from their homes.

Reiterating Kashmiris’ pledge to take the ongoing struggle to its logical end, the APHC leader said that India must bear in mind the fact that the use of illegal force always failed to suppress nations and the same thing was being witnessed Kashmir where Kashmiris have refused to bow before India despite its barbarism and brutal suppression.

“The Indian government with all its tools of oppression and suppression had failed to deter the determined Kashmiris from seeking their right to self-determination through a peaceful struggle”, Shah said, adding the day was not far when Kashmiris would achieve their cherished goal of freedom.

Meanwhile, Shabbir Ahmed Shah in a separate statement felicitated people and government of Pakistan on its 75th Independence Day. Extending his warmest wishes to the Pakistani nation, he said that Kashmiris were grateful to Pakistan for its continued political, moral and diplomatic support to Kashmir cause.