Kashmiris ready to sacrifice their lives, not motherland, says PoK leader on 'Black day'

Brussels: Taking strong exception to the atrocities committed by the Pakistan authorities on the people of occupied Kashmir (PoK), United Kashmir People's National Party (UKPNP) leader Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri has said Kashmiris could die but won`t compromise on their motherland.

Delivering a tough message on `Black Day` on Saturday, the UKPNP leader said, "This day is very important for all those Kashmiris who do care for their own people and want them to be safe and secure; and this day is also a message to those who are committing atrocities, that Kashmiris can die, but they cannot compromise on their motherland."

"Today, on October 22, Jammu and Kashmir was attacked by Kabailis, who tried to capture our motherland and thousands of our young people, women, elderly and children were killed by them. Today is also a day to remember brave Kashmiri mujahids (people performing Jihad) Master Abdul Aziz and Maqbool Sherwani, who fought back Kabailis. And, it is the result of their struggle, that the people of Jammu and Kashmir even today remember them and hail their valour and deplore those who had started bloodshed in our country," he said.

He said, "The Pakistan government has claimed itself to be a well-wisher of the Kashmiri people, but instead, has launched an execrable conspiracy against us. On the one hand, they signed a standstill agreement with us and accepted the freedom and sovereignty of our state; while on the other hand, they launched a deplorable conspiracy in Peshawar and abducted Kashmiri women, killed children, and confined thousands to their homes and charred them."

This was the day when tribal hordes, with the connivance of the Pakistani state, devastated large parts of Jammu and Kashmir, violated the Standstill Agreement between Pakistan and the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, which resulted in the death of thousands of innocent people, Hindus and Muslims alike, and resulted in the first Indo-Pak War in 1947-48 and subsequent wars thereof.