Indian obstinacy on Kashmir issue can trigger nuclear war: AJK president

Sardar Masood Khan urges UNSC to appoint special envoy to resolve the conflict

MUZAFFARABAD: President Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Sardar Masood Khan has said there is no military solution to the Kashmir issue and India will have to initiate dialogue process with Pakistan and people of the valley to find a way to peacefully resolve the conflict.

He made these remarks while speaking to a delegation of 48th Pakistan Navy Staff Course participants at Aiwan-e-Saddar on Tuesday. The delegation, comprising 14 faculty members of the Navy War College and 92 course participants including twenty officers from friendly countries, is currently visiting the AJK as a part of their inland study tour.

President Khan said that Pakistan has always sought peaceful resolution of Kashmir issue through dialogues, but India is adamant to settle the issue through military might by suppressing the voice of Kashmiri people for their internationally recognised right to self-determination.

He went on to say that the two countries have fought three wars over Kashmir and now Indian obstinacy on the issue, inhuman atrocities in Kashmir and Indian shelling on civilian population living along the Line of Control (LoC) could bring both nuclear-armed state to the brink of another devastating war.



“It is high time for the United Nations Secretary Council to take a step forward and appoint a special representative to explore a viable solution to the conflict and ensure peace and stability in the region,” he said.

“The United Nations and world powers need to intervene in setting a stage for the resolution of Kashmir before the two nuclear-armed states indulge in a full-fledged war which will be a monumental disaster that will engulf not only the region but other parts of the world,” President Khan emphasised.

About the draconian laws, like Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Public Safety Act (PSA) that give the total impunity to the Indian forces in occupied Kashmir, the AJK president said an Indian soldier can shoot to kill anyone at will and he will not be accountable to anybody or any agency for prosecution.



He said that recent report of the United Nations’ Commission for Human Rights on Kashmir followed by similar report compiled by All Parties Parliamentary Kashmir Group reflects that world is now realising the gravity of unresolved Kashmir dispute. He added that another report on the state of human rights in Kashmir is being compiled by a committee of the European Parliament.

Earlier, President Khan briefed the delegation about functioning of AJK government, its administrative matters and priorities. The president said that reinforcing Kashmiri peoples’ struggle for their right to self-determination, providing better governance and efficient administration to the people of AJK and economic development of the liberated area are some of the priorities of AJK government.