ISLAMABAD – Thousands of residents of Azad Kashmir rallied Saturday onboard vehicles and motorbikes to press for their demand that India lift atwo-month old controversial clampdown in its controlled portion of thedisputed region.
The protest came on a day when U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen arrived inPakistan after visiting India, where he was refused permission topersonally visit Kashmir to assess the situation.
While speaking in the eastern Pakistan city of Multan, Van Hollen urged NewDelhi to ensure protection of human rights, restore communications andrelease political prisoners in the disputed territory, Voice of America hasreported.
The protesters in Pakistani-administered Kashmir were calling for theregion’s independence a they were headed to the Line of Control (LoC),which divides the Himalayan territory, vowing to force their way into theIndian side.
Local police have placed roadblocks just a few kilometers from the LoC,however, to prevent the rally from reaching the de facto border.
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“I am going with this march to express solidarity with our Kashmiribrothers, who have been under curfew for two months now,” Ejaz Ahmed, a64-year-old medical doctor by profession, told VOA.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government onAugust 5 unilaterally scrapped a decades old constitutional semi-autonomousstatus for the country’s only Muslim-majority state.
New Delhi has since deployed tens of thousands of additional troops, cutphone and internet services, and arrested nearly 4,000 people, includingthe region’s top political leadership, journalists and lawyers, amidserious allegations of torture and abuses.
