Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday declared Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani, who was gunned down by Indian security forces on July 8, a “martyr of the independence movement”, reported PTI. Chairing a special meeting of his Cabinet in Lahore to discuss the situation in the Kashmir valley, he said Pakistan will observe July 19 as Black Day to express their solidarity with the people of Kashmir.
“Pakistan would continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support for Kashmiris in their just struggle for right to self-determination,” the prime minister was quoted by Radio Pakistan as saying.
Pakistan's defence minister also posted a series of tweets comparing the current situation in Jammu and Kashmir to the riots in Gujarat in 2002. Khawaja M Asif called the "massacre and genocide" in the valley to the "ethnic cleaning" in Gujarat.
On Thursday, Pakistan’s envoy to United Nations Maleeha Lodhi raised the matter of ongoing clashes in Kashmir at a UN forum, where he called Wani's killing by Indian forces "extrajudicial". In response, Indian UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said Pakistan was "misusing" the UN platform, calling it a country that "covets the territory of others and uses terrorism as a state policy towards that misguided end".
Meanwhile, authorities imposed curfew in 10 districts of the Kashmir, including Pahalgam in Anantnag district. According to local residents, it was first time in the history of Kashmir that such restrictions have been imposed in Pahalgam.
Over the last week, 37 people have been killed and more than 3,000 injured in clashes that followed Wani's death. Mobile internet services were suspended for the seventh day on Friday and trains were not running either, reported The Times of India.
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