Some 2,000 people staged a protest rally here as Kashmiris in Pakistan observed a "black day" to mark India's independence anniversary Wednesday.
The newly elected chief minister of the Pakistan-administered zone of Kashmir, Sardar Sikandar Hayat, was among the local government officials lending their support to the Kashmiri separatist cause.
"We condemn India on its Independence Day which in fact is a black day for the Kashmiris wherever they live," Hayat said.
"We are not demanding a piece of land from India but our right that India itself had pledged to us before the international community at the forum of the United Nations," he said, referring to 1948-49 UN resolutions.
Some of the placards on display at the rally read: "India, quit Kashmir", "Aggressors in Kashmir have no right to celebrate Independence Day" and "We salute Pakistan for supporting our cause".
Hayat urged the international community to support the Kashmiri struggle as emotional youths torched Indian flags.
"There is no oil in Kashmir. Perhaps that's why the West is not taking interest," he said, accusing the UN of being a "tool of the big powers".
Protesters marched to the office of the UN military observers assigned to monitor ceasefire violations along the unofficial border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
They delivered a memorandum calling on the UN to persuade India "to shun its obduracy, concede the ground realities and agree to hold the plebiscite" as recommended in the decades-old resolutions.
Pakistan holds the northern third of the disputed Himalayan state. The Indian zone has been rocked by a 12-year Muslim separatist campaign that has claimed more than 35,000 lives.
Kashmir has sparked two wars between India and Pakistan since their independence from Britain in 1947 -- MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan-controlled Kashmir (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
