ISLAMABAD    -    Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday termed martyred Kashmiri youth Burhan Muzaffar Wani as a symbol of Kashmiris’ courageous resistance against the Indian occupation.

On the sixth martyrdom anniversary of Wani, the prime minister paid tribute to him and said the Indian troops in Occupied Kashmir unjustifiably tortured Wani and forced him to pick guns instead of education.

PM Sharif said Burhan Wani was the dear son of a Kashmiri mother who used to teach Holy Quran and of a teacher father who taught students. He said Wani had written a chapter of great sacrifice against the illegal occupation of India and added that even 0.9 million troops could not deter the commitment of such brave sons of soil.

The prime minister said for over 70 years, the courageous Kashmiri people were struggling for their right to self-determination.

He urged the international community, particularly the United Nations to ensure implementation of the resolutions of the Security Council by holding a plebiscite in accordance with the aspirations of the people of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

He vowed Pakistan’s continued support to the just struggle of the Kashmiri people and prayed for the elevation of the ranks of the martyrs including Burhan Wani.

Pakistan yesterday urged the world to help resolve the Kashmir issue amid bloodshed in the occupied territory by India.

On the occasion of sixth anniversary of the martyrdom of Kashmiri youth leader Burhan Muzaffar Wani, Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmed said that India should desist from indiscriminate use of force and relentless targeting of Kashmiris especially the youth.

“Pakistan urges the international community to play its due role for just and peaceful resolution of Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and wishes of the Kashmiri people,” he said.

The Foreign Office spokesperson said that the government and people of Pakistan “pay strong tribute to the life and legacy of Burhan Wani for his selfless sacrifice in the struggle of Kashmiris to attain their inalienable right to self-determination.”

The FO spokesperson called Burhan Wani the face of the indigenous Kashmir freedom movement.

Mass public rallies across Azad Jammu and Kashmir and in various parts of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) were held yesterday to continue the mission of shaheed-e-Hurriyat Burhan Muzaffar Wani till the achievement of liberation of the occupied state from long Indian bondage.

Kashmiri people living at both sides of the line of control and rest of the world paid tribute to the young martyred hero of the Kashmir freedom struggle Burhan Muzaffar Wani and his companions on 6th martyrdom anniversary with the renewal of the pledge to continue the mission of the young martyred Kashmiri till its accomplishment through the liberation of the motherland from the forced and unlawful Indian occupation.

In AJK, mass public rallies and demonstrations were held besides special prayer meetings for the shaheed Wani in all ten districts and including central Azadi Chowk.

In IIOJK there was complete shutdown strike across the occupied valley to mark the day followed by anti India and pro-freedom rallies and demonstrations.

Addressing the rallies, speakers paid rich tributes to young shaheed Burhan Wani for bringing the Kashmir freedom struggle in the occupied state to the decisive stage through giving the supreme sacrifice of his precious life.

Speakers said that best way to pay rich tributes to shaheed Wani is to follow his footsteps till the struggle for freedom reaches to its logical end.

They said that ongoing indigenous struggle for freedom has reached at the point of no return in the IIOJK following the daily supreme sacrifices of lives being given by the youth including the street children who are determined to get the motherland freedom from the Indian despotic unlawful rule without taking care of their precious lives, he added.

Wani had secured the great honour to infuse a new spirit and more vigor among the Kashmiri youth to perpetuate the 75-year-old Kashmir freedom movement through persuading the Kashmiri youth for the freedom struggle through the social media besides to apprise the external world of the exceptional importance of the Kashmiris indigenous struggle for freedom of the motherland from Indian yoke.

He was martyred by the Indian occupational forces in Bamdoora Kukernaag area of the occupied valley on July 8 in 2016 in a fake encounter. India had announced Rs 1 million head-money for shaheed Burhan Muzaffar Wani declaring him the most-wanted.

Shaheed Wani was stated to be an expert in using social media and delivered strong speeches. He was from a well-off family in Tral in south occupied Jammu Kashmir, not far from the place of his martyrdom along with two of his comrades at the hands of the Indian occupying troops.