Christian community an essential part of our social fabric: AJK president

MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has said that Pakistan and Azad Kashmir are a haven of peace and brotherhood for religious minorities unlike India where attempts are being made to eliminate all minorities including Muslims to turn the country into a Hindu fanatic state.

While speaking at a tea party hosted in honour of the Christian community at Aiwan-e-Sadr in Muzaffarabad on Monday, he said that today religious harmony, brotherhood and restraint are more needed than ever in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir.

“The Christian community side-by-side with the majority has always played a positive role in promoting interfaith harmony in the liberated territory,” President Masood said, adding that although Christians are less in number in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, "Muslims hold them in high esteem".

Emphasising on Islamic teachings and their implementations by the Muslim segment of the society, he maintained that non-Muslims do not only enjoy socio-economic rights in Muslim countries but every individual holds the freedom to practice their religion in their own ways.

"When Great Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) had established the state of Medina, he had declared respect for all religions mandatory," he said, adding, "We fully believe in promoting interfaith harmony and restraint in the light of Holy Quran and Sunnah."

The AJK president went on to say that demands regarding worship places, education and jobs for the Christian community in the liberated territory are valid and the government will gradually address all their issues on priority basis. He also assured the Christian community that all hurdles in the way of obtaining state subject certificate for the them would be removed.

‘Keep highlighting India brutalities in Occupied Kashmir’, Masood urges media

While extending Christmas and New Year greetings to the Christian community, he said that the doors of Aiwan-e-Sadr are open to all minorities including Christians.

Touching upon the latest situation of Occupied Kashmir, President Masood said that Muslims of the held territory are being subjected to repression because of their Muslim identity and their lives have been made miserable in their own homeland.

On August 5 last year, India had stripped Occupied Kashmir of the special autonomy it had for seven decades through a rushed presidential order. Pakistan had strongly condemned the move and vowed to “exercise all possible options to counter the illegal steps” taken by New Delhi.

“[Indian Prime Minister] Narendra Modi's fanatic government is toeing the philosophy of Hindu supremacy and perpetrating the worst brutalities against non-Hindu minorities,” he said, adding that a new citizenship law has been introduced to usurp the civic rights of Muslims and other minorities so as to turn India into a purely Hindu state free of followers of other religions.

The function was attended by leader of the Christian community Dr Pervaiz Shan, Pastor Faizan, Sonia Bhatti and a large number of other leaders and community members.