Anti-India Kashmir Protests Held Across Pakistan, US Marking Sixth Anniversary

Various pro-Kashmir communities and activists worldwide marked the sixth anniversary of India's revocation of Kashmir's special status on August 5, 2019, with protests and rallies condemning Indian actions as oppressive and illegal. In Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, events featured demands for restoration of Kashmir's statehood, highlighted human rights abuses, and called for international intervention and the right to self-determination based on UN resolutions. Kashmiri Americans held a peaceful protest in New York's Times Square denouncing India's settler colonialism, demographic changes, and suppression of political dissent, with calls for release of political prisoners and an end to occupation. Similar protests took place in Japan, where the Kashmiri and Pakistani diaspora organized a mass rally and planned to submit a memorandum to the UN and Indian Embassy to spotlight ongoing atrocities and demand justice. Speakers and organizers across these events criticized Western complicity, praised Indian dissenting voices supporting Kashmir's rights, and emphasized the sustained commitment of the Kashmiri diaspora to justice and freedom from Indian control. The protests underscored widespread global solidarity with Kashmiris against what they describe as state-sponsored terrorism and occupation by India.