On 10th December 2021, the Kashmir Youth Alliance in Collaboration with the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics organized an event titled “Iconic Prisoners of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir”.
Chairman Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir Shehryar Khan Afridi, Khurram Dastagir Khan of the PML-N, Dr Nadeemul Haq, Vice Chancellor of PIDE, President KYA Dr Syed Mujahid Gilani, Prof. Khurram Ilahi and Asiya Andrabi’s Son Ahmed bin Qasim addressed the seminar.
Shehryar Khan Afridi urged the world community to take notice of the travesty of justice being committed by Indian forces against the political prisoners of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
He said that the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir was working to preserve, promote and protect the Kashmiri culture. He said that the successful holding of the Kashmir Premier League (KPL) has proved to the world that in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, tyranny and oppression is order of the day while Azad Kashmir is a developing and thriving part of Kashmir.
Ahmed bin Qasim, the son of Dr. Qasim Faktoo, the longest-serving prisoner of IIOJK, narrated the tales of Kashmiri prisoners, adding, Indians were erasing the names of Kashmiri prisoners from the record. Dr. Mujahid Gilani, head of the Kashmir Youth Alliance, briefed the audience on the miserable conditions of Kashmiri prisoners in IIOJK.
Khurram Dastagir said a Non-Government Organization of Kashmir had recently published tales of Kashmiri prisoners which was even unimaginable. He said it was unprecedented in history to know that the Kashmiri prisoners faced the worst torture but did not give up their love for freedom. He said Pakistan needed to present Dr. Qasim Faktoo as an archetypal case to shake the world’s conscience.
Prof Khuram Elahi shared a few verses from the poetry of Allama Iqbal on Kashmir and his vision about the Muslims of the subcontinent. Dr. Nadeemul Haq, Vice-Chancellor of PIDE, presented a vote of thanks. He said the youth was disillusioned and distracted from affairs that matter, and economic revival could pave the way for the revival of national pride in Pakistan.
