ISLAMABAD: While addressing a seminar organized by the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Jamaat-e-Islami to mark the second martyrdom anniversary of veteran APHC leader and icon of Kashmir freedom movement, Syed Ali Gilani, speakers described him as real hero of the Kashmir freedom movement for his undaunted resistance against the Indian illegal occupation and injustice throughout his life.
The speakers in a seminar in Islamabad on the JI-AJK Islamabad office including Ameer JI-AJK, Dr Mushtaq Ahmad; APHC-AJK Convener, Mahmood Ahmad Saghar; senior APHC-AJK leader, Ghulam Muhammad Safi; APHC-AJK General Secretary, Sheikh Abdul Mateen; and AJK leader Abdul Rasheed Turabi said Syed Ali Gilani fought throughout his life to free the Kashmiri people from Indian subjugation and his unprecedented struggle and spirit of resistance will continue to inspire the coming generations of Kashmiris.
They said that Syed Ali Gilani, who entered the politics of Kashmir in the 1950s, waged a peaceful political struggle for 37 years for the settlement of the Kashmir dispute, but ultimately he realized that India, the claimant of the world’s largest democracy will not grant the Kashmiris their inalienable right to self-determination through democratic means.
Despite all the difficulties and sufferings, Syed Ali Gilani demonstrated unprecedented determination and courage and never compromised on his principled stand, the speakers said. He was a true Pakistani who believed in attaching the political destiny of Kashmiris with Pakistan as per the two Nation Theory and he remained committed to this ideology till the last breath of his life, they asserted.
The speakers said that Syed Ali Gilani coined the slogan “We are Pakistanis and Pakistan is ours” under the bayonets of the Indian army, proving that he was a true Pakistani. They maintained that the success of the freedom movement remained the sole objective of Syed Ali Gilani’s life-long struggle despite spending a large part of his life in jails and concentration cells where he was subjected to physical and mental torture. Despite all cruelties and tyranny he never compromised on the demand for self-determination for his enslaved people, they added.
