Highlighting plight of Kashmiris: Students urged to agitate on social media

AJK president says impossible to engage with India when extremist govt is in power in New Delhi

Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan on Friday urged students to give political and moral support to Kashmiri youth and play their role in highlight the Kashmir issue, especially through social media.

Addressing the annual convocation of Preston University, he urged students to use their expertise on new digital platforms to talk about Kashmir.



Some social media platforms, particularly Facebook, have been censoring news relating to the recent wave of violence in Kashmir.

As many as 400 students of Preston University were conferred degrees in different categories including MA, MS and M.Phil on Friday.



The AJK president said that India was committing gross human rights violations in occupied Kashmir where the entire population of the disputed territory was living under extended curfew for over a month now.

He hoped that the United Kingdom would condemn human rights violations and atrocities by Indian forces in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK). He also urged the British government, Norway and other countries to link their trade contracts with India with peaceful resolution of Kashmir dispute.

The AJK president appealed to the international community to come forward and play its due role to end the rights abuses and resolve the outstanding disputes.

He categorically refuted Indian claims that Kashmir was its integral part, adding that Kashmiris had never accepted Indian rule and were continuing their freedom struggle despite atrocities and state oppression articulated through violence by Indian forces to quell their right of self-determination promised to them by the United Nations Security Council.



Khan asserted that the people of IOK were engaged in a peaceful, unarmed struggle for freedom and could not be branded as terrorists.

He further rejected the concept that Kashmir dispute was a bilateral issue, stating that it had now turned into an international issue.

Speaking about the possibility of resolving the issue through dialogue, the AJK president said it is impossible to engage in a dialogue with the present Indian government as it is being governed by extremists.

“India does not accept third country mediation for peaceful resolution of Kashmir issue,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2016.