Ishfaq Majeed Wani Shaheed remembered

London, 31 March, 1998

JKLF members in UK and USA commemorated the death of first JKLF commander Ishfaq Majeed Wani (Shaheed) yesterday and renewed their pledge to continue with his fight for re-unified independent homeland. Ishfaq Wani who lead the Kashmiri freedom struggle in 1990 was martyred on 30th March 1990 in Srinagar. Commemoration rallies and Quran-Khawani Mehfils were held in Srinagar, Muzafarad, New York and London by the JKLF on the occasion his 8th anniversary.

In separate meetings in Bradford and Watford, Kashmiri expatriates paid rich tribute to his brave and heroic struggle at a very young age which swept the whole of the occupied Kashmir valley under the banner of the JKLF and said that had he been alive today his vision and dedication for the cause of freedom would have taken the Kashmiri nation to new era of freedom by the end of this century. Speakers said that neither India nor Pakistan had the right to barter the Kashmiri freedom struggle for their domestic or regional designs and that the 13 million people of Jammu Kashmir alone had the right to decide how to run their county. They vowed to continue with the mission of JKLF martyrs and spoke of the need for unity amongst various pro-independence groups and urged the masses from Azad Kashmir to play their role effectively. The meeting also condemned the continued detention of various JKLF members from Azad Kashmir including Sardar Rauf Kashmiri in Kot Balwal jail and various Kashmiri women prisoners in Delhi.

In a similar meeting in New York, the JKLF(USA) held a special meeting to commemorate Ishfaq Wani's anniversary and paid tribute to all freedom fighters who had laid down their lives for the freedom of their motherland. The meeting, chaired by its president Haleem Khan, was attended by many members from New York and said that Ishafaq Wan and Hameed Sheikh had followed foot steps of Maqbool Butt Shaheed and that the Indian occupation forces should be under no illusions of winning the war simply because they have been able to kill over 60,000 Kashmiris.