Kashmir struggle is not terrorism: Masood

AJK president says negotiations only way to resolve Kashmir issue

MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan has advised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to read the writing on the wall and, instead of ignoring the facts, adopt the course of dialogue to resolve the long-standing Kashmir conflict.

He asserted that the Kashmir conflict and the struggle of the Kashmiri people for the attainment of their fundamental right of self-determination were a historical reality the Indian rulers could not conceal through their fraudulent stance and means.

Strongly condemning an attempt by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address to the Maldives parliament, to link the Kashmir liberation struggle with terrorism, the AJK president said that the people of the state had been resisting the Indian occupation forces since October 27, 1947.

He reasoned that martyrdoms of more than 500,000 Kashmiri people and the presence of 800,000 Indian troops in occupied Kashmir were proof that the people of Jammu and Kashmir were fighting a war of freedom against the army of an aggressor country, and that their struggle had nothing to do with terrorism or extremism.

The AJK president termed the Kashmir conflict an outcome of India's constant denial of the legitimate and internationally recognized right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people, and said that peace and security in South Asia would remain a dream until the Kashmir issue is resolved in line with the wishes of the Kashmiri people, international law and United Nations (UN) resolutions.

He also called upon the United Nations, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Russia and China to help resolve the Kashmir issue through political and diplomatic means to ensure peace in South Asia, and said that, despite all-out Indian oppression, the freedom-loving people of Jammu and Kashmir were determined to continue their liberation struggle until its success, and that no power on earth could force them to desist from their legitimate and just struggle.

Castigating India for keeping an important liberation leader, Musharraf Alam Butt, in the custody of an Indian intelligence agency, the AJK president demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all Kashmiri political leaders and activists.

Sardar Masood Khan termed the prolonged detention of political figures and activists in prisons and torture cells on false and unfounded grounds the worst political vengeance and a grave human rights violation, and urged international human rights organizations to take strong notice of human rights abuses in occupied Kashmir.