Press Freedom Day Observed With Condemnation Of Persecution Of Journalists In IIOJK

MIRPUR (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th May, 2022 ) : May 04 (APP) ::The journalist community across Azad Jammu Kashmir marked the World Press Freedom Day on Tuesday with serious concern over the increased incidents of victimization of journalists in Indian Illegally occupied Jammu Kashmir by the Indian occupational forces with sinister motives to gag the freedom of expression in the internationally-acknowledged disputed state.

The day was particularly marked with unanimous demand to the world human rights bodies for the grant of complete freedom to the press the world over especially in the areas like Indian Illegally occupied Jammu Kashmir where the freedom of expression was constantly being snubbed by the occupational Indian forces at the gun point with ulterior designs primarily to suppress the Kashmiris struggle for liberation of the motherland from forced and unlawful Indian rule.

In Mirpur, special ceremony to mark the day was jointly held under the auspices of Jammu Kashmir Union of Journalists and Jammu Kashmir Free Media Association with the Union's Vice President Raja Sohrab Ahmed Khan in the Chair.

Speaking on this occasion, through video link from UK and AJK capital city, Central President JKUJ Hafiz,Maqsood From UK and Saeed ur Rehman SIDEEQUEE from Muzaffaabad besides other JKUJ and JKFMA leaders including the chair, Central Vice President Sohrab Ahmed Khan, Ali Akhtar Salim, convener JKFMA Altaf Hamid Rao, Dr. Usman Ghani, ex Joint Secretary Kashmir Press Club Mirpur Atiq ul Amin Khan and others vehemently condemned the continual incidents of victimization of journalists in Indian Illegally occupied Jammu Kashmir by the Indian occupational forces with sinister motives to gag the freedom of expression in the internationally-acknowledged disputed IIOJK state.

With serious concern, speakers condemned the registration of cases against several of noted Kashmiri journalists in Indian occupied Jammu Kashmir including Peerzada Ashiq, Gohar Gillani and female photojournalist Masarrat Zahra by the occupational Indian authorities under serious charges.

They termed it a cowardly act of state terrorism against the Kashmiri journalists on the part of the Delhi's installed puppet state administration in the IIOJK to gag the true voices of Kashmir through such coercive tactics also against global moral norms and commitments.

The Jammu Kashmir journalists fraternity leaders warned the suppressive Indian authorities and their stooges in Indian Illegally occupied Kashmir that such mean and cowardly acts to suppress the freedom of expression in the bleeding vale of Kashmir could not sustain for a long time and the media would continue raising the voice of Kashmiris till their just and principled struggle for securing their right of liberation of the motherland from forced and unlawful Indian rule reaches to its logical end.

It may be recalled that three of the IIOJK journalists including Gohar Gillani, Masarrat Zahra and Peerzada Ashiq, who worked with reputed organizations in India and abroad, were booked about a couple of years ago for uploading some Kashmir-related photographs and covering the viewpoint of the Kashmiri martyrs' families.

The meeting called upon the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights to immediately intervene to get the victimization of the Kashmiri journalists by the occupational Indian oppressive forces aimed at to gag the freedom of expression in the Indian Illegally occupied part of the disputed Himalayan state.

Speakers bitterly criticized the imposition of sanctions on press in certain parts of the world including the Indian-Illegally occupied Jammu & Kashmir state where media was badly suffering from the sanctions imposed by the Indian occupation forces including the puppet state government.

They pointed out that no any foreign journalist from print and electronic media was allowed by the Indian occupation forces to visit and cover the every day tragic incidents of the killing of the innocent Kashmiris by Indian occupying troops in the bleeding vale of Jammu & Kashmir where people have stood up particularly since over last 20 years for fighting against the unlawful and forcible Indian occupation of their motherland.

Speakers also strongly condemned the increased sanctions and restrictions imposed by the Indian occupational forces to gag the media in the strife-torn occupied valley, where kashmiris struggle for freedom was at climax, since past many years.

They underlined that India and its stooges in occupied Kashmir were trying to shut the media with ulterior motives to snub the voice of freedom struggle by the people in the bleeding valley of occupied Jammu & Kashmir.

Speakers called upon the United Nations, international human rights and media organizations to take immediate notice of the said sanctions imposed against media by Indian forces in the occupied Jammu Kashmir state and move for getting them lifted without further delay.

Speakers also called upon the international organizations of media to take immediate notice of the sanctions imposed on local and foreign media in certain parts of the world including in the Indian-occupied Jammu & Kashmir with the ulterior motives to suppress their voice in order to conceal the true picture of inside of Indian Illegally occupied Jammu Kashmir where no any day was left without the tragic incident of killing of the innocent Kashmiris by the Indian occupying forces to quell their ongoing movement for freedom of the motherland from the Indian yoke.

They also demanded of the AJK government for managing the inter-provincial, regional and international study tours of AJK journalists as well as the holding of the journalists capacity building/training workshops in all ten district headquarters of AJK by the state government to ensure the quality working by the newspaper and news agencies correspondents in AJK.