AJK President Sardar Masood Khan. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE
This was stated by Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan on Monday during the inaugural session of a two-day international conference on Kashmir titled “From Gardens to Graves: Kashmir in Resolutions and Solutions” at the National University of Modern Languages (NUML).
The conference has been organised by the Department of International Relations, Faculty of Social Sciences at NUML in collaboration with Sophy’s Forum Faculty of Languages.
Masood said that the fascist Indian regime should reverse the actions taken on August 5, 2019, whereby the special status for the disputed Himalayan territory of Jammu and Kashmir granted under the Indian Constitution, had been revoked.
He further urged the United Nations to admit that Kashmir is not a bilateral issue between Pakistan and India, rather it is now an international dispute.
Reiterating the call to grant Kashmiris their right to self-determination, Masood said that the Indian fascist regime has been busy trying to manipulate this right by artificially re-engineering the demographic makeup of the region.
“Fighting for independence cannot be called terrorism but having thousands of troops stationed in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) is certainly an act of terrorism,” Masood asserted.
He also highlighted alleged conspiracies of Lord Mountbatten — the last viceroy of the British crown to India — with regards to Kashmir.
He said that people of Pakistan should remain clear on the wishes of the people of Kashmir who wanted to join Pakistan.
The AJK president also praised the sacrifices of Kashmiri leaders such as slain Burhan Wani, Maqbool Butt, Yasin Malik, Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and others.
He criticised the international community for not speaking up about the brutality of the Indian army on Kashmiris just because of some economic benefits that they stand to gain in trade with India.
Masood, though, thanked China, Turkey, Iran, Malaysia, Finland and Germany for extending their support to Kashmir and the Kashmiri people on international forums.
Later, NUML Rector Major General (retired) Muhammad Jaffar expressed his grave concerns over the silence of the UN on its own resolution about Kashmir and hoped that someday the sacrifices of the Kashmiri people will get global attention.
He also presented the historical and current overview of the situation in the disputed valley, adding that Pakistan will support Kashmiris at every forum.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 24th, 2019.
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