The Kashmir Solidarity Day is being marked all over the country and in Azad Kashmir on Sunday (today) to re-affirm Pakistan's moral, diplomatic and political support to Kashmiris as well as seeking a resolution of Kashmir dispute according to UN resolutions and aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

The day dawned with special prayers for the martyrs of Kashmir, victory of the freedom struggle and expression of solidarity with the Kashmiri people, followed by rallies, symposia, walks for peace, conventions and public gatherings in order to draw world attention towards the plight of oppressed Kashmiri people.

Nationwide one-minute silence will be observed at 10:00 am to honour Kashmiri martyrs. The Kashmir Solidarity Day is observed on February 5 every year to highlight the plight of people in Indian-held Kashmir and draw the world's attention to its obligation to the UN-sponsored plebiscite there.

Protest rallies and demonstrations will be held across the country and human chains will be formed in the areas connecting Pakistan and Azad Kashmir to support the just cause of the Kashmiris. The participants of the rallies will also strongly condemn gross violations of basic human rights by Indian troops in the occupied valley.

TV and radio channels will present programmes featuring different dimensions of the Kashmir issue, trampling of human rights by India in occupied Kashmir and interviews of important personalities.

It may be noted that Kashmir is the unfinished agenda of partition plan under which Pakistan and India emerged as independent states in 1947.

Under the plan, originally, Kashmir was part of Pakistan but India annexed major part of Kashmir by sending troops to Srinagar on October 26, 1947. Kashmiri freedom fighters resisted Indian aggression and got some part of Kashmir liberated from Indian occupation which is known as Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

It may be recalled that the call to mark the Kashmir Solidarity Day on February 5 had first been given in the mid-1990s by the then chairman of the Parliament's Kashmir committee, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan.

The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly and the upper house of the AJK Parliament, the AJK Council, will hold a joint session in Muzaffarabad to pay tribute to the people of occupied Jammu & Kashmir for their continuous struggle to achieve their right of self-determination.