Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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Thousands Begin 'Freedom March' in Pakistan-Held Kashmir Toward Disputed
Border With India

Ayaz Gul

   ISLAMABAD - Thousands of residents of Pakistan-held Kashmir rallied
   Saturday on board vehicles and motorbikes to press for their demand
   that India lift a two-month old controversial clampdown in its
   controlled portion of the disputed region.

   The protest came on a day when U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen arrived in
   Pakistan after visiting India, where he was refused permission to
   personally visit Kashmir to assess the situation.

   While speaking in the eastern Pakistan city of Multan, Van Hollen urged
   New Delhi to ensure protection of human rights, restore communications
   and release political prisoners in the disputed territory.

   The protesters in Pakistani-administered Kashmir were calling for the
   region's independence from both the countries and they were headed to
   the Line of Control (LoC), which divides the Himalayan territory,
   vowing to force their way into the Indian side.

   "We want freedom on this [Pakistani] side and that [Indian] side,"
   chanted the slowly moving and charged up crowd that is expected to
   reach the boundary line on Sunday.

   Local police have placed roadblocks just a few kilometers from the LoC,
   however, to prevent the rally from reaching the de facto border.

   "I am going with this march to express solidarity with our Kashmiri
   brothers, who have been under curfew for two months now," Ejaz Ahmed, a
   64-year-old medical doctor by profession, told VOA.

   Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government on
   August 5 unilaterally scrapped a decades old constitutional
   semi-autonomous status for the country's only Muslim-majority state.

   New Delhi has since deployed tens of thousands of additional troops,
   cut phone and internet services, and arrested nearly 4,000 people,
   including the region's top political leadership, journalists and
   lawyers, amid serious allegations of torture and abuses.

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