People of so called "Azad Kashmir" are neither azad nor Kashmiris. They do not have local representation, but ruled by some beauraucrats in Islamabad and Pakistani military officers.
Gunmen kill Kashmiri leader in Pak - Kashmir Times
He was pro-independence
A H Nizami
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MIRPUR (PAK), May 14: Eminent Kashmiri nationalist leader and the Chairman of All Parties National Alliance (APNA) Sardar Arif Shahid was laid to rest in his ancestral village Khaidgalla, Kooyan in Rawalakot district of Pakistan Administered Kashmir (PAK) on Tuesday.
He was reportedly assassinated by unknown gunmen, in an ambush, while he was approaching his residence in Rawalpindi Monday night. The cause of his killing by two unknown gunmen could not be ascertained. The accused fled away on the motorbike after shooting Shahid to death while he was in his car while entering his residence Monday night, according to the family sources of the late leader.
His party `Jammu & Kashmir National Liberation Conference’ has announced three-day mourning across Pakistan Administered Kashmir to condole the sad demise of the nationalist kashmiri leader and the stanch promoter of the ideology of the complete independence of Jammu & Kashmir state.
The activists of various Kashmiri nationalist parties thronged the streets in various parts of PAK including Mirpur, Muzaffarabad and Rawalakot on Tuesday to protest and condemn, what they called, the gruesome murder of Shahid, also the central president of Jammu & Kashmir National Liberation Conference (JKNLC).
“Hundreds of people representing diverse segments of the civil society from across PAK, mostly the workers of Kashmiri nationalist groups, attended the funeral of Sardar Arif Shahid in Rawalakot Tuesday afternoon where he was later laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard in native village Kooyaan, about 10 kms away from Rawalakot city,” an advocate Nisaar Ahmed Shah, who too participated in the funeral, told this scribe over telephone Tuesday afternoon.
Prominent among those, who attended the funeral, included General (Retired) Nadir Hassan Mirza from Gilgit /Baltistan, secretary general of the J & K National Liberation Conference Shoukat Maqbool Butt, Advisor to the PAK president Sardar Abid Hussain besides others.
Meanwhile, the activists of various Kashmiri nationalist parties took to the streets to protest against the murder of Sardar Arif Shahid.
In Mirpur, a large number of the workers of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Conference, J & K Plebiscite Front, Jammu Kashmir National Awami Party, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, J & K National Students Federation staged protest demonstrations at central Shaheed Chowk Tuesday afternoon to protest against the killing of Sardar Arif Shahid by the unidentified gunmen.
Addressing the protesters, the speakers including NLC leader advocate Mohammed Ramzan Dutt, central president JK Plebiscite Front advocate Nasir Saeed Insari, advocate Azeem Dutt, JKLF leader Khawaja Pervez Iqbal termed the murder of Sardar Shahid a great loss to the Kashmir freedom struggle.
Paying rich tributes to the departed leader, speakers said that late Shahid lent his entire life for the independence of the state of Jammu & Kashmir.
Speakers demanded high level probe into the murder of the Kashmiri leader and to bring the culprits to justice without further loss of time.
Hundreds of people also staged protest demonstration in Rawalakot, the native village of late Sardar Arif Shahid, to condemn his murder. They demanded an immediate high level probe into the assassination of the seasoned Kashmiri leader of the Kashmir freedom struggle.
The president of Jammu & Kashmir Liberation League and former Chief Justice of PAK High Court Justice (Retd) Abdul Majeed Mallick and president PAK Chapter of the PPP (Shaheed Bhutto) advocate Chowdhary Munir Hussain also strongly condemned the assassination of Sardar Shahid while he was entering his residence at Adyala Road in Rawalpindi Monday night.
Talking to newsmen here Tuesday, the two Kashmiri leaders paid rich tributes to Arif Shahid for his meritorious life-time services to the Kashmir cause. They demanded immediate high level judicial inquiry into the assassination of the nationalist Kashmiri leader.
Similar protest demonstrations were also staged by various Kashmiri nationalist outfits in the capital city of Muzaffarabad on Tuesday to condemn the murder of the seasoned Kashmiri leader of freedom struggle.
Seasoned Kashmiri analyst and writer Ershaad Mahmood in his statement, released through the social media on Tuesday said, “The murder of the political leader of PAK is a tragic incident. There should be an independent probe into the tragic mishap so that the culprits could be unearthed. Arif Shahid is the first political leader of PAK, who has been murdered. This murder could be the result of personal enmity and also could be on the basis of the political ideologies. It is the responsibility of the state institutions to make the investigation report public within next 48 hours to avert emerging of misunderstandings.”
