TOKYO: A demonstration was staged on Thursday in front of the Pakistan Embassy in Tokyo to protest against the brutalities and horrors in Jammu and Kashmir during Pakistan’s invasion of the state on October 22, 1947.
Several people held banners and posters reading ‘#22OCTBLACKDAY’ and ’22 October – A Day To Remember’, during their protest against the Pakistani invasion of Jammu and Kashmir 73 years ago. “Kashmir wants justice for killing of women, children by Pak Army in 1947,” read one of the posters.
October 22, 1947, is observed as a ‘Black Day’, when Pakistan invaded Kashmir and brought in its wake horrifying stories of mass plunder and vandalism. Thousands of men, women and children were killed while the raiders carried out a siege of the then bustling town of Baramulla.
European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS), in a recent commentary, called October 22 as the “darkest day” in the history of Jammu and Kashmir when Operation Gulmarg was launched in a bid to seize the territory. According to a European think tank, the tribal invasion had left between 35,000 and 40,000 residents dead, besides, a “grim mark” on the fate of J-K.
“The planners and perpetrators of the tribal invasion were, and remain, without doubt, the foremost enemies of the Kashmiri people. The day the invasion began on October 22, 1947, has to be the darkest day in the history of the J-K,” the European think tank said. (ANI)