The India Study Centre (ISC) at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) in collaboration with National Defence University (NDU), Islamabad organized the Seminar on Commemorating the Black Day: India’s Plunder of Jammu and Kashmir on October 27, 2021, at ISSI. The Chief Guest of the event was General Ehsan Ul Haq, NI (M), (Retd), former Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. The speakers’ panel included Ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Director General ISSI, Dr. Saif Malik, Director ISC, Mr. Ahmad Quraishi, Executive Director YFK-International Kashmir Lobby Group (Kashmir Dispute and the Role of International Community and Media), Dr. Asma Shakir Khawaja, HOD Department of Strategic Studies, National Defence University (NDU) and Maj. Gen. Dr. Raza Muhammad, HI (M), (Retd), Advisor to the President NDU.
Dr. Saif Ur Rehman Malik, Director ISC set the tone with his introductory remarks. Dr. Saif said that today we have gathered to Commemorate Black Day in the bleeding history of Kashmir. Though every day in Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), bring miseries in the lives of innocent Kashmiris but 27th October is observed and remembered when India on the same day in 1947, contrary to the aspirations of Kashmiris and against the international norms, landed its troops in Srinagar. Since that day onwards, the perpetual moves of ethnic cleansing, through brutal tactics, yet unending were raging on. Being the “oldest and unresolved international conflict,” the Kashmir dispute presents a formidable challenge to regional as well as global peace and security, in addition to being a huge question mark viz-à-viz the effectiveness, sincerity, and efficacy of the United Nations.