Kashmir Solidarity Day or Kashmir Day is a national holiday observed in Pakistan on 5 February annually. It is observed to show Pakistan’s support and unity with the people of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir and Kashmiri separatists’ efforts to secede from India, and to pay homage to the Kashmiris who have died in the conflict. Solidarity rallies are held in the Pakistani-administered territory of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Kashmir Day was first proposed by Qazi Hussain Ahmad of the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan in 1990. In 1991, the then-Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif called for a “Kashmir Solidarity Day Strike” Sharif had come to power with the help of the Jamaat in the previous year, and the 1991 event was also a Jamaat affair.
The current ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’ was started by the Pakistani minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas in 2004
