Amid ongoing protests in different parts of Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) against July 25 'rigged' elections, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) on Tuesday announced to organize a protest march from Central Press Club Muzaffarabad to Assembly Secretariat Muzaffarabad on August 5, against bulldozing democratic rights of the residents of PoJK.
Although the JKLF is a terror group, involved in committing heinous crimes in Jammu and Kashmir, the outfit has decided to hold protests at the same time when Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan will meet the puppet assembly of PoJK on August 5. Imran Khan will address the puppet assembly only to legitimize the rigged and manipulated elections.
The purpose of this march is to record protests against the undemocratic and immoral elections held on July 25- amid unprecedented violence and shameless rigging by leaders of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, with the help of the Pakistani Army.
JKLF opposes merger of PoJK, Gilgit-Baltistan with Pakistan
Respecting the sentiments of the inhabitants of PoJK and Gilgit-Baltistan, the JKLF has opposed the merger of these two regions with Pakistan.
"Besides lodging protest against rigged elections, we will also expose nefarious designs of Pakistan government to annex the PoJK and Gilgit Baltistan with the cooperation of puppet government and collaborators", spokesman of the JKLF Umer Hayat, stated in a handout.
"The JKLF will be a leaden wall against the plans to do so and the rulers and establishments will never be allowed to accomplish their evil designs", he said.
The march will be led by chairman JKLF Sardar Muhammad Sagheer Khan Advocate.
"All patriots, supporters of the unity and independence of the state of Jammu Kashmir, civil society, lawyers, journalists, and all political activists who have concerned and reservations about the so-called electoral process are invited to join the protest march", the handout reads.
JKLF - a banned terror group, involved in committing heinous crimes in J&K
The JKLF was set up in the United Kingdom, in May 1977, by Amanullah Khan. The outfit is reportedly supported by expatriates of the Mirpur community that belongs to Pakistan Occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK).
Another JKLF, a splinter group headed by Mohammad Yasin Malik, was founded in September 1995, after Malik split from Khan over some differences. JKLF headed by Yasin Malik is a constituent of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference.
Most of the leaders of JKLF are indulged in terror activities including the hijacking of an Indian Airlines aircraft in 1971, kidnapping and gruesome killing of the Indian Deputy High Commission in Birmingham Ravindra Mahtre in 1984.
After elections were held to the J&K State Legislature in the year 1987, activists of JKLF had crossed the LoC and received arms training. Simultaneously, the JKLF established its network in Srinagar and, in 1988, initiated the present phase of terrorism in J&K.
The incumbent chief of JKLF Yasin Malik is presently lodged in Tihar Jail, Delhi, after he was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in April 2019 in connection with a terror funding case, a month after his group was banned by the central government.
In March 2020, the special TADA court had framed charges against Malik and six others in another case related to the gunning down of four IAF personnel on the outskirts of Srinagar in January 1990.
A special TADA court has already framed charges against Yasin Malik and nine others in a 31-year-old kidnapping case involving Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of the then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
Pak opposition parties dub elections as a farce
Opposition parties have accused the PTI-led government of rigging the elections. Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) vice-president Senator Sherry Rehman has blamed the Pakistani Government for systematic rigging and said that the elections were "stolen" by the ruling party.
The outgoing PoJK's so-called Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider has called the election a farce. "The assembly elections were nothing but a farce exercise to hoodwink the people," he said in a statement before the declaration of the results.
