Kashmiris not to compromise on their identity, dignity: AJK President

• Sardar Masood Khan has said that Kashmir was undergoing the darkest time of its history.
• The AJK president said that a sizeable majority of Kashmiri people wanted to accede to Pakistan as was resolved by them in July 1947, through an accession to Pakistan resolution.
• The AJK president pointed out that India was clearly threatening Pakistan with the use of nuclear weapons.

MIRPUR (AJK): Azad Jammu and Kashmir, President Sardar Masood Khan has said that Kashmir was undergoing the darkest time of its history, but the morale of its people was very high and no power on the earth could defeat them nor could force them to compromise on their dignity and identity.

Speaking at an event organized by World Affairs Council of Philadelphia in Washington late Wednesday, he said that Indian hegemonic designs and aggressive actions had brought the region at the brink of disastrous war, an official statement released to media here Thursday by AJK Presidential Secretariat said.

The AJK president said that a sizeable majority of Kashmiri people wanted to accede to Pakistan as was resolved by them in July 1947, through an accession to Pakistan resolution.

"A small portion of Kashmir now known as Azad Jammu and Kashmir gained independence but a large chunk of the state was under foreign occupation and its people are terrifically suffering under Indian repression," he added.

Condemning August 5 action of Narendra Modi regime, he said that New Delhi had invaded the disputed territory and occupied it.

"The streets in occupied Kashmir were deserted and gun totting soldiers patrolling; pellet guns were being randomly used; thousands of youth have been detained and shifted to prisons outside

Kashmir; the women bodies had been objectified and they were treated as spoils of war," he added.

Terming unilateral actions by India as unlawful and the violation of Geneva Convention and its Additional Protocol, AJK President expressed gratitude to the global media, world parliaments, and the US congressmen for raising voice for the Kashmiri people, but regretted that major world capitals had been silent.

He recalled that many countries in the last century had appeased the Nazi regime which had led to World War-II.

"Today if you appease India, the situation in the region would take a turn for the worst," he warned.

He lamented that the UN Security Council had only held an informal session on Kashmir that concluded without a Presidential Statement.

He said that the Security Council must intervene before it was too late.

"A genocide pogrom is in progress in occupied Kashmir. What the Security Council is waiting for," he asked.

The AJK president pointed out that India was clearly threatening Pakistan with the use of nuclear weapons.

Modi during electoral campaign, had said that India would use "mother of nuclear bombs, and warned that nuclear war would lead to a nuclear fallout, refugee outflows, far reaching climatic impacts and a global recession.

Earlier in a chat with the participants of a conference organized by New America, a Washington DC based Think Tank on the topic of ‘Future of Jammu and Kashmir, the president called upon the international community to come forward to help the Kashmiri people.

"After reoccupation of the territory, the Indian Army is preparing for ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Muslims, and the international community will have to take immediate steps to prevent it, and to get the disputed status of Kashmir restored," he added.

He said that the solution to Kashmir conflict lies in the implementation of UN resolutions, and the people of Pakistan as well as Jammu and Kashmir want to resolve the problem in accordance with the UN resolutions.

The AJK president said that two months had passed since the reoccupation of occupied Jammu and Kashmir by India, and India had planned to turn the disputed territory into its colony.

"The actions taken by India on August 5 were unilateral and unlawful, and naked violation of additional protocol IV of Geneva Convention and the laws of international criminal court," he added.

Sardar Masood Khan said that clouds of war were hovering over the region following Indian threats of carrying out bloodshed in occupied Kashmir and attack on Azad Kashmir and the use of nuclear weapons against Pakistan.

"If the war breaks out, it would have negative impacts on not only the region but the whole world as well," he warned.

He said that the growing Hindu fanaticism must not be ignored because this ism preaches religious hatred and Hindu supremacy, which has posed dangers for other minorities.

Touching upon various formulae and options for the solution of Kashmir issue, the AJK president said that these formulae do not conform to ground realities of Kashmir because the wishes and approval of Kashmiri people are not involved in it.