India’s evil designs about Kashmir to never materialize: AJK President

MIRPUR (AJK): Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan unequivocally stated on Tuesday that India's dream of turning the territory of Jammu and Kashmir into Hindu Rashtra would never materialize as the Kashmiri people are determined to continue their struggle for freedom and the right of self-determination till the last drop of their blood.

He made these remarks while addressing – as a keynote speaker – a webinar on “Marginalization of Kashmiris in the Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir by Indian Government”, organized by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), AJK President office said.

Other speakers at the event included former Senator Javed Jabbar, Chairperson Pakistan Peace and Culture Organisation Mishaal Hussain Malik and AVM (R) Shahzad Chaudhry. Acting President IPRI, Brig. (R) Raashid Wali Janjua hosted the event.

“Despite India’s policy of irredentism, Kashmiris have vowed to continue their struggle for freedom and self-determination by giving their blood to keep the flame of liberty burning. I say with conviction that the truth will prevail, evil will be crushed, and the Indian criminals will be brought to justice”, Khan affirmed.

He said that the whole population of occupied Jammu and Kashmir has been under the siege of the Indian Army since August 5 last year, and the occupation troops are ruthlessly engaged in crimes like the ethnic cleansing of the Kashmiri people, which are not only crimes against humanity but the war crimes as well.

Sardar Masood Khan said that the BJP-RSS regime is taking systematic steps in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) to alter its demography, its geography, its statehood, and the rights of the people of Kashmir recognized by international law.

“Jammu and Kashmir, as we knew it and as recognised by the UN is disappearing before our very eyes”, he warned

He elaborated that last year on August 5, after the invasion and forcibly annexing the occupied territory with its federation, it arbitrarily and in violation of the UN Security Council resolutions divided the occupied state into two parts and designated them as federal territories.

The President said that later last year, another sinister plan was implemented to ruthlessly take Kashmir away from Kashmiris, where more than 2 million Hindus from India have been illicitly settled inside the occupied territory.

The AJK President also informed his audience of how legal businesses of Kashmiri Muslims are being delegitimized under illegal edicts and their land is being commandeered for settlements and Hindu enterprises. “Any part of the sovereign territory of Kashmiris is fair game for confiscation”, said the State President.

Speaking of the imposition of a counterfeit political class on Kashmiris, the President said that with ongoing gerrymandering, Muslims are being reduced to a minority even in the constituencies where they have been in majority. “Holding of the recent farcical local elections, the cycle for the total disenfranchisement and dispossession of Kashmiris is being completed”, he informed.

President AJK said that crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and war crimes – all indictable offences under international law. He added that the campaign is not just about the marginalization of Kashmiris, but their total annihilation and what is happening in the IOJK is genocide as defined in Article 2 of the 1948 Genocide Convention.

“Scores of young men are being killed in fake encounters. Nobody knows the fate of more than 13,000 young boys rounded up in 2019 and put into concentration camps. Our top Kashmiris leadership is either in the most infamous jails in India or are imprisoned in their houses”, he said.

Masood Khan urged the participants of the webinar to issue a communiqué demanding the release of our leaders – Asiya Andrabi, Yasin Malik, Shabbir Shah, Ashraf Sehrai, and Musrat Alam Bhatt; and remove restrictions on Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq.

Sardar Masood once again called to change the Kashmir movement into an international civil rights movement, to move with energy and ingenuity to reverse the vicious brutalization of the Kashmiris and block India’s path of fascism and its Hindutva doctrine.

“We are trying to break the silence of the international community in the UN, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, European Parliament, other national parliaments, and multilateral forums.”, he concluded.