By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s president, prime minister and parliament marked 79 years since Indian troops landed in Srinagar by renewing their pledge of political and diplomatic support for Kashmiris and rejecting the changes India made to the region’s status in 2019.
Pakistan observes 27 October each year as Kashmir Black Day, recalling the arrival of Indian forces in Srinagar in 1947. India dates its claim to the territory from the previous day, when the ruler of the princely state, Maharaja Hari Singh, signed the instrument of accession to the Indian union, days after tribal fighters entered from the Pakistani side on 22 October. Pakistan does not accept that accession. Both countries claim the Himalayan region in full, and each administers part of it.
The prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said the arrival of Indian forces began a “tragic chapter” in the history of Jammu and Kashmir. “Pakistan’s position on Jammu and Kashmir remains clear, consistent and principled,” he said, adding that lasting peace and stability in South Asia depended on a just and peaceful resolution in line with relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of Kashmiris.
Sharif voiced concern at the prolonged imprisonment of Kashmiri political leaders, activists and human rights defenders. He paid tribute to the men, women and children who had made sacrifices in pursuit of their rights, and said their memory would always be honoured.
In a statement issued by the Presidency, Asif Ali Zardari said people in Indian-occupied Kashmir had endured decades of conflict, restrictions and denial of fundamental rights since 27 October 1947. He described continuing curbs on freedoms, heavier militarisation, arrests and reports of rights violations as “a matter of serious concern” that required sustained international attention. Zardari called on the United Nations and international human rights organisations to take due cognisance of the situation, according to state broadcaster Radio Pakistan.
The deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, said Kashmiris’ struggle for self-determination, a right recognised by the United Nations, remained unfinished nearly eight decades after Indian forces entered Srinagar. India’s unilateral measures of 5 August 2019 had worsened conditions in the territory and could not change its disputed status, he said, and the dispute could not be settled by unilateral action or force.
Dar urged the international community to take sustained notice of the human rights situation and to press India to end violations and allow Kashmiris to exercise self-determination. He said Pakistan would continue to offer them political, diplomatic and moral support.
Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, said Kashmiris had waited decades for the self-determination promised in UN resolutions. The international community, he said, must answer through its actions when that right would be granted. He said the future of Kashmir’s children should be one of freedom, peace and life without fear, not another long wait to decide their own destiny.
The National Assembly unanimously passed a resolution reaffirming Pakistan’s “unwavering moral, political and diplomatic support” for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. It condemned what it described as extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, enforced disappearances, custodial torture and restrictions on fundamental freedoms in the territory, and expressed concern at the continued detention of Kashmiri leaders and activists.
The House rejected the 5 August 2019 measures, which it said were intended to alter the territory’s status and demographic character. It said the final status of Kashmir must be decided in line with UN Security Council resolutions and the freely expressed will of its people, and it asked the government to keep raising the dispute at the UN, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and other forums. The resolution said neither time, repression nor unilateral action could extinguish Kashmiris’ aspirations or lessen the international community’s responsibility to work towards a settlement.
On that date in 2019, India’s Bharatiya Janata Party government revoked the region’s special status by repealing Article 370 of the constitution, which had limited the Indian parliament’s power to legislate for the state outside defence, foreign affairs and communications. Jammu and Kashmir became a union territory on 31 October 2019 after the former state was reorganised into two territories, the other being Ladakh.
The question of statehood has dominated politics on the Indian side in recent weeks. The Jammu and Kashmir assembly passed a resolution on 28 September calling for the restoration of full statehood, with 60 of its 90 members in support, while BJP legislators walked out. The chief minister, Omar Abdullah, whose government took office in October 2024, said the Centre had promised statehood after delimitation and elections. He said the resolution concerned statehood alone. The BJP, the largest opposition party in the assembly, objected to wording that referred to an autonomy resolution adopted in 2000.
Relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbours remain poor. An attack in the Indian-occupied part of Kashmir in April 2025 killed 26 people, mostly tourists. India called it terrorism and accused Pakistan of involvement, which Islamabad denies. India responded by closing the Attari-Wagah border crossing, revoking visas for Pakistani nationals and suspending the Indus Waters Treaty. The two sides fought their worst military conflict in decades the following month. The countries still hold differing interpretations of the treaty suspension.
Friction has continued this month. On 2 October, two Pakistani civilians were killed in the Bedian sector of the international border. Pakistan blamed India’s Border Security Force and summoned India’s chargé d’affaires. On 16 October, the Foreign Office spokesman, Sajjad Haider Khan, condemned remarks by India’s defence minister that Islamabad described as a threat of aggression, and repeated that the 2019 measures were illegal and void. A week later, he rejected India’s criticism of resolutions on Kashmir adopted at the OIC foreign ministers’ meeting in Baghdad.
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