Sardar Masood Khan, President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Thursday said that durable peace in South Asia would not be possible without resolving the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. Addressing a seminar at the German Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin, he said, "Peace in South Asia requires engagement but India is blocking all channels for dialogue and communication on Kashmir."
"India wants to take Kashmir and Kashmiris out of the Kashmir dispute," he said and asked, "Is that not the biggest diplomatic oxymoron of our times?" President Masood Khan said, "To make the quest for peace in South Asia meaningful, India should end human rights violations in Kashmir, deescalate its frequent and hostile fire across the Line of Control (LoC), free political prisoners, and restore basic liberties and fundamental freedoms of the Kashmiri people."
Most importantly, he emphasised, "The Indian Occupation Forces should stop their operations in the IoK that are meant to terrorize and subjugate people." Paying tribute to Germany for emerging as a 'bastion of stability' in Europe and a global leader, the President Khan urged German Members of European Parliament to raise the issue on the floor of the Parliament and call on the UN Security Council to take urgent steps to implement its resolutions on Kashmir.
As citizens, he said, "Germans should work for the primacy of protection of human rights in Jammu and Kashmir." President Masood Khan told the audience, comprising students, academics, and representatives of civil society, "The Kashmiris are waging a peaceful, indigenous struggle. There is no terrorism in Kashmir. Kashmiris were unarmed and unaided militarily. Their only weapons were their aspirations and their words for freedom."
The AJK President appealed to the European countries not to "appease" India for the sake of economic benefits and misguided strategic considerations. "Policies of appeasement last century led to two world wars and disastrous consequences. That mistake should not be repeated in regard to Kashmir," he said. He concluded his remarks with the words, "We have faith in Germany; have faith in Kashmiris; and help them realise their right to self-determination."
Meanwhile, Dr Michael Gottlob of Amnesty International has said that the massive human rights violations in the Indian Held Kashmir should come to an end. In his meeting with President AJK Sardar Masood Khan in Berlin, Dr Gottlob said, "IoK was being treated like a colony." "Last year, during a seminar on human rights in Kashmir held by Amnesty International in Bangalore, the organisation was accused of sedition because some participants had raised slogans of freedom and all Amnesty offices were closed," he said.
Dr Gottlob said, "India should realise that a military solution of the Kashmir dispute was not possible. Jammu and Kashmir is divided; and "if Germany can be united, so should Jammu and Kashmir." He said, "The space for human rights and human rights defenders was shrinking in India as Indian authorities, among others, were using denial of visa as a means to block fact finding in Kashmir." He said, "The United Nations Human Rights Council was the best forum for getting more attention to the situation in Kashmir."
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