Mourning was observed throughout Azad Jammu Kashmir to express deep sense of shock and grief over the gruesome killing of two innocent AJK-born Pakistani hostages by the abductors in Iraq on Friday.
The national flag flew at half mast in the mourning of the brutal killing of the Kashmiri hostages Raja Azad and Saud Naeem, residents of Rawalkot, Azad Kashmir, who were working for a Kuwaiti business concern-Al Tamimi group in Iraq, and became the victim of the violent act of terrorism at the hands of the militants. Protest demonstrations followed by rallies and processions in all small and major towns including the district headquarters of Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Bagh, Bhimbher, Palandri and their ancestral town Rawalkot were the hallmark of the day.
Entire Azad Kashmir Friday fell into deep grief over this brutal act of violence and terrorism with the determination to continue supporting the global fight against terrorism. The mourned people termed the killing of Raja Azad and Sajid Naeem the blatant killing of humanity and human and moral values.
In Mirpur, mourned people from all walks of life thronged into the streets to condemn the killing of the two innocent Pakistani hostages. The protest demonstration, attended by the members of the business community, lawyers, journalists, laborers, and students as well as social and political workers, was arranged by Markazi Anjuman-e- Tajran with the co-ordination of various public representative organisations.
Holding banners, the processionists, led by President Markazi Anjuman-e-Tajran Suhail Shujah Mujahid, Secretary General Farooq Akhtar Qureshi, and Secretary National Events Organising Committee Altaf Hamid Rao.
Central Secretary General Azad Jammu Kashmir Central Union of Journalists Ejaz Fazal Chaudhry, Senior Vice President Kashmir Press Club Syed Abid Hussain Shah, Vice President Raja Sohrab Khan, Divisional President Markaza.
Anjuman-e-Tajiran Tahir Mal lick, President District Bar Association Riaz Inqlabi Advocate, Central Secretary Information Jammu Kashmir National Liberation Front Mohammad Ramzan Dutt Advocate, Secretary General DBA Arshad Mallick and others marched through the city streets shouting, slogans against the international terrorism.
The procession turned into the condolence meeting on this occasion. Addressing the condolence gathering speakers vehemently condemned the killing of Raja Azad and Sajid Naeem describing it an act of sheer violence and terrorism and violent attack on the innocent humanity. Speakers supported the global war against the international terrorism and the role of Pakistan joining this global fight against the terrorism.
Speakers continued that it is the most cowardly act on the part of the killers against the innocent Pakistani hostages. "The martyrdom of Azad and Naeem is the killing of the entire humanity and a big challenge for those global forces fighting against the international terrorism," they declared.
Speaker further said that he people of Jammu and Kashmir have not ever taken any step against the freedom and independence of Iraq. "Rather the Kashmiri have always supported the suppressed nation of the entire world side by side their freedom and the right of self-determination," they added.
Through a resolution, the condolence public meeting strongly condemned the killing of the two innocent Pakistanis and expressed deep sense of shock and grief over the brutal assassination of the two citizens of Azad Kashmir the resolution demanded of the government of Pakistan to make early arrangement for shifting of the bodies of the two victims of the global terrorism from Iraq to their ancestral town for burial.
The condolence meeting urged the international community to join hands against the global terrorism till it was vanished from its roots. They said that the killing of the innocent Kashmiri hostages in Iraq is the eye-opener for the human rights organisations. They said that this shameful act of violence by the terrorists should be strongly condemned across the world.
They prayed for the rest of the departed souls in eternal peace and grant of fortitude to the people of Azad Kashmir especially the bereaved families to bear the irreparable loss.