“Unacceptable”: MQM founder Altaf Hussain condemns killing of peaceful protestors in PoJK

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain has condemned the killing of peaceful protestors by Pakistani forces in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) calling it “unacceptable”.

This comes after paramilitary rangers, unlawfully deployed in PoJK, gunned down several protestors leaving dozens and left several others severely wounded.

“This vehement and provoking naked shooting is unacceptable and highly condemnable,” Hussain said in a statement issued from the party’s central secretariat here in London.

“I condemn the firing by the paramilitary Rangers on peaceful Kashmiris who were at the protest because the state of Pakistan has oppressed them since the day of inception,” Hussain said.

Hussain also offered his condolences to the families of the Kashmiris killed in firing by the paramilitary rangers.

He said that according to the reports received so far, many Kashmiri youths have been gunned down while large-scale injuries have taken place till yet. This is the “naked state terrorism,” he claimed.

The MQM founder further stressed that on the one hand, the Pakistani government is pretending to negotiate with the Kashmiris Action Committee and to accept their demands, while on the other hand, the “Kashmiris are being subjected to state atrocities,” while the internet service in the region has been suspended in order to “inflict violence” on the people of Pakistan-held Jammu and Kashmir.

“The atrocities of the Pakistani state institutions cannot be hidden from the eyes of the world,” Hussain said. “The government should not fool the Kashmiri people by issuing fake announcements of accepting their demands.”

He said that in PoJK, people are being oppressed politically, economically, and educationally and are physically massacred.

“Electricity is being generated in Kashmir, but electricity is being sold to Kashmiri people at high rates and they are being forced to buy expensive flour. When the Kashmiri people are peacefully protesting against these injustices and for their legitimate rights, they are being tried to be crushed by the state power. Kashmiri people from different cities of Kashmir are reaching Muzaffarabad and instead of engaging them for the dialogue, Paramilitary Rangers are killing them,” Hussain said.

“As a result of which 9 Kashmiri youths have been killed and many injured. Due to these atrocities and injustices, the Kashmiri people have been forced to raise the slogan demanding independence from Pakistan,” he added.