In occupied Kashmir, the veteran Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani has called for complete shutdown in the territory on the 26th January, the Republic Day of India.

Syed Ali Gilani in a statement issued from New Delhi said, India projects itself as a big democracy of the world and celebrates January 26 as Republic Day but its claims stand exposed in Jammu and Kashmir as this country is denying the democratic rights of the Kashmiri people from last over 67 years. The veteran leader said that the Kashmiris were neither enemies of India and its people nor were they opposed to their Republic Day celebrations within the limitations of territory of India. However, he maintained that India was controlling Jammu and Kashmir with its military might and it had no constitutional and moral justification to celebrate these functions in the territory.

Syed Ali Gilani said that the UN Charter supported the right to self-determination of every nation of the world and this right had been accepted as the basic and birth right of every human being. “India has promised at national as well as international levels that it will hold a referendum in Jammu and Kashmir but those promises are yet to be fulfilled and the Kashmiri people are being denied their democratic right,” he deplored.

The veteran leader also condemned the administrative circular making participation of government employees in the function at Bakhshi Stadium as compulsory. He appealed to the people of the territory to completely boycott the function and termed the government order as sheer hooliganism and coercion.