Right to self- determination: AJK ready to accept third-party mediation on IoK

Valley’s president urges international community to support the cause of Kashmiris

MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan on Thursday urged the international community to support Kashmiris’ cause to exercise their right to self- determination, noting that the valley was ready to accept third party mediation on it.

Masood made these remarks in Muzaffarabad while talking to foreign military officers of National Security and War Course 17, conducted by National Defence University (NDU).

Officers of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Germany, Brazil, Austria, South Korea, South Africa, Nepal, Nigeria, China were present in the meeting.

He said new world powers were emerging, predicting that the completion of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would force the existing world order to change. Pakistan would become the centre of connectivity for South East Asia, Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East, he said.

“In this rapidly changing world scenario, the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IoK) are also striving to liberate themselves from the shackles of foreign occupation and alien domination,” he said.

He lamented that residents of IoK were subjected to everyday killings, enforced disappearances, incarceration while the women were being subjected to rape and molestation; and the young men were being maimed and tortured.

The AJK president said that people of the valley were ready to accept third party mediation, be it from the United Nations or any other impartial country or forum.

“We believe in dialogue and diplomacy, but India wants to crush the Kashmiris’ will for freedom by using brute force through the 700,000 occupation force against unarmed Kashmiris.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2017.