The AJK president pointed out that Kashmiri youth were being killed by the Indian occupation forces in detention centers. The AJK president said that while the world was fighting the coronavirus, the Indian government had implemented its Domicile Rule in IOJK so as to settle Indians from all over India in IOJK, grab the Kashmiris land, their employment and their educational seats.
"This is a challenge for us and it's our responsibility to keep the Kashmir issue alive on the international agenda. We must revive the communication bonanza given to us by the international media," he said.
Sardar Masood Khan appreciated the highly effective role being played by the NDMA in the fight against coronavirus and asked the authority to supply more personal protection equipments (PPEs) required for the health professionals in the AJK.
Chairman NDMA Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal, while assuring the supply of necessary PPEs to the health department of the AJK, said that the testing capacity for coronavirus was consistently being increased in the country.
He also appreciated the government of the AJK for taking corrective measures to check the spread of Covid-19 in the state. The AJK president said the government of AJK was working closely with national institutions like the Ministry of Health, the NDMA, the National Institute for Health (NIH) and other national and global partners to deal with the pandemic.
He said that under the Ehsaas Programme Rs3 billion had been distributed among 248,000 deserving households. He added that the AJK government had through its early disbursement of zakat helped deserving families in these trying times and also effectively upgraded essential health infrastructure.
He commended the constructive role of the AJK ulema and political leadership who in all their meetings with the AJK leadership had vowed to follow prescribed SOPs, identify the deserving families and had also said they would help reach out to philanthropists across the liberated State. They, he said, had pledged to raise awareness amongst the masses.
"No sector, section of society will be targeted and all stakeholders are working in complete unison," he said, Masood Khan said the implementation of a smart lockdown will help effectively contain the disease but warned that the people should not assume that the danger had been averted.
The public, he said, should continue to adhere to precautionary measures prescribed by the State government. Economic activity, said the president, would be rejuvenated and financial impact of the lockdown would be assessed in detail by the government.
The AJK president said in this time of distress we must not in any way forget the oppressed people of IOJK who are facing a dual lockdown, one since August 5, 2019, and the other, the coronavirus lockdown.
Masood Khan said during this period of lockdown, the RSS and the BJP leaders and Indian military commanders have crafted three lies against Pakistan: first, that Pakistan is pushing corona patients to Azad Kashmir; second that Pakistan is sending the coronavirus patients to the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir; and the third lie that Pakistan is sending militants across the LoC.