ISLAMABAD: The President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Sardar Masood Khan called for frequent review of priorities on Kashmir by expanding the Kashmir resistance movement across the world in order to compel powerful countries and decision-making institutions to speak in favour of the oppressed Kashmiri people.
Addressing a seminar on ‘Kashmir liberation movement and our national responsibilities’ organised by various Pakistani national institutions, the AJK president said India is certainly responsible for the agonies of the Kashmiri people “but we must not forget the characters like Sheikh Abdullah who had played the role of facilitators for India to grab a major part of the disputed state.”
He said the Kashmiris who are being slaughtered like animals by the Indian army are part of the body and soul of the Pakistani nation, and it is our national responsibility to save them from the worst tyranny.
About international support to the resistance movement, he said although support of international civil society, different parliaments of the world, human rights groups and media to the just cause of Kashmiri people has been rampant since 2019, silence on the part of the governments has been noted.
He further said the reoccupation of occupied Jammu and Kashmir, declaring it part of the Indian Union and to change the demography of the occupied territory was just one phase of the Indian plan, and in the next phase, India wants to invade Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, which India had revealed by issuing new maps and through public statements made by their leaders time and again.
About the situation in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the AJK president said that more than eight million people of the occupied state have been kept under siege by the Indian Army for the last 16 months where youths are being killed in fake encounters by falsely declaring them as terrorists.
He said Kashmiri children as young as nine, 10 and 11 years old have been arrested and imprisoned where they are subjected to the worst torture to force them to abandon their struggle for freedom and right to self-determination.
On the other hand, he added that two million Hindu citizens from various parts of India have been brought and settled in Kashmir to change the demographic structure of the disputed territory, and this process was still going on a fast track.
In response to a query, he said the impression that Kashmir resistance movement was confined to only border areas was not correct, adding that details available of martyrs in Kashmir by the Indian army shows that they belong to all parts of the occupied Kashmir.
He pointed out that none of the leaders of the resistance movement including Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Asiya Andrabi, Musarat Alam Butt, and others belonged to the border areas, which is proof that the freedom movement was Kashmir-wide and people from all walks of life and schools of thought were part of it.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021