President Asif Ali Zardari today called upon the United Nations and the international community to officially recognize the 1947 Jammu massacre as genocide and to hold India accountable for its policies in the region, according to a draft message released ahead of ‘Jammu Martyrs’ Day’.
In a statement issued on Wednesday for the commemoration on November 6, the President asserted that India is continuing a campaign of “systematic demographic engineering” in what the message termed “Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).”
The presidential message alleges that on November 6, 1947, forces of the Hindu Dogra Maharaja, with assistance from RSS extremists and armed groups, killed over 200,000 Muslims. The statement claimed this event constituted “one of the worst massacres in the history of the subcontinent” and led to more than half a million people fleeing to areas near Sialkot.
According to the communication from the Press Information Department, the tragedy permanently altered the demography of Jammu, transforming a Muslim-majority area into a minority through what was described as “systematic ethnic cleansing.”
The message draws a parallel between the historical events and the current situation, contending that the “pattern of repression remains unchanged.” It specifically cited India”s August 2019 revocation of Articles 370 and 35-A, land seizures, and the influx of non-locals as part of a “design to erase the Muslim character of Jammu and Kashmir.”
The statement further characterized the region as “one of the most militarised zones in the world,” with a deployment of nearly one million Indian troops, and urged the world not to ignore the “persecution, displacement and dispossession” faced by Kashmiris.
On the solemn occasion, President Zardari reaffirmed Pakistan”s “unwavering support” for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The message concluded with a pledge that Pakistan will continue to extend its “full moral, diplomatic and political support” to the Kashmiri people in their “just struggle for self-determination.”