Firdous challenges Modi to lift curfew and see how many Kashmiris take to streets  

• A large number of women from different walks of life attended the Kashmir solidarity rally.
• The two nuclear powers Pakistan and India, she said, were face to face on the Kashmir issue and the international community should play its role.
• “When the nation will be united, it will send a strong message to the world. We will not tolerate mistreatment of women by India.”

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan Friday challenged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lift curfew in the occupied valley even for an hour and see how many Kashmiris take to streets against him.

Addressing a rally, organized by the Jammu and Kashmir Solidarity Movement here, she said India had snatched the religious, constitutional and legal rights of the Kashmiris, who were not even allowed to say their Friday prayers.

A large number of women from different walks of life attended the Kashmir solidarity rally.

Dr Firdous said the women of Pakistan stood with their sisters of the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) facing immense difficulties, and shared their pain and grief.

India, she said, had turned the occupied valley into a jail and taken away the fundamental rights of Kashmiris. It had denied the right to self-determination and freedom to the IOK people, she added.

She said Prime Minister Imran Khan would fight the case of Kashmiris in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 27.

He would not disappoint the nation and would tell the world that Pakistan wanted peace in the region but it would not stay silent and would take every step to stop human rights violations in the IOk, she added.

The two nuclear powers Pakistan and India, she said, were face to face on the Kashmir issue and the international community should play its role.

The special assistant said Kashmir was the first line of defence for Pakistan and the day was not far when the Kashmiris would get freedom from India.

Pakistan would continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiris, she added.

She paid tribute to the women, who gathered on the occasion in support of the Kashmiris, who had been under siege of the Indian occupation forces for the last 40 days.

Dr Firdous said the message from the prime minister and the Pakistan Army was that the nation would fight till the last drop of blood, last bullet and last man for the Kashmir freedom.

She said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a coward man and he could not defeat the nation which had strong belief in itself.

She said the opposition leaders had been giving preference to their personal interests but now they would have to change their thinking. She called upon the opposition to get united on the issue of Kashmir.

“When the nation will be united, it will send a strong message to the world. We will not tolerate mistreatment of women by India.”