AJK president urges students to shake world’s conscience on Kashmir

Malala Yousafzai among large number of students attend an interactive session at Oxford University

OXFORD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has urged the students studying in the United Kingdom and other countries across the world to bring the matter of Indian brutalities in occupied Kashmir into the notice of United Nations officials.

UN Secretary General António Guterres, the UN Security Council and the Chairperson of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights must be compelled to take concrete steps for resolution of the long-standing Kashmir issue, he said while addressing students from Pakistani, Kashmiri, and other ethnicities from around the globe during an interactive session at the prestigious Oxford University on Saturday.

“If Kashmir conflict is not resolved through peaceful means, it will not only lead South Asia towards a disastrous war but will also jeopardise the future of the millions of youth living in the region,” he said.

Sardar Masood said that India’s threats of attacking Pakistan and AJK are designed to divert the world’s attention from the situation in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and in India itself.

The event was attended by a large number of students which also included Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, President Oxford Pakistan Society Shahnur Chohan, Vice President of the society Nima Ashfaq and Secretary Alina Salauddin.

The AJK president said that now the international community has been well aware of India’s facade and diversionary moves. He said that after the August 5 move last year, the global media has very courageously and boldly exposed India's false narrative. “It is imperative that the educated youth use traditional and new communication mediums to expose India’s heinous designs, and bring forward the true picture of India’s war crimes being committed in IOJK,” he added.

“Resolving the Kashmir dispute is not the sole responsibility of the Kashmiri or Pakistani people, but the world must unite and take tangible steps to ascertain the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people. Resolution of this dispute is crucial for world peace and security,” said Sardar Masood and emphasised that the consequences of any conflict between the nuclear-armed neigbours will not only be regional but a global threat.

The AJK president said that Kashmir was not a bilateral dispute between Pakistan and India but it is a trilateral issue and the people of Jammu and Kashmir who are to determine their own future are the key party to the dispute. “The slogan of Azadi (freedom) which India wanted to quell in IOJ&K and for this purpose deployed its 900,000 troops in occupied Kashmir, was now being heard across the length and breadth of India itself,” he said.

Responding to a volley of questions, Sardar Masood Khan rejected the impression that the lack of construction and development has left Azad Kashmir underdeveloped. Today, he added, “we have five public sector universities, three medical colleges, hundreds of colleges and thousands of schools besides roads that connect districts and subdivisions of AJK”.

The people of AJK, he said, have come a long way and are now far prosperous and well off than in the past.

He said that efforts are under way for the construction of basic infrastructure to promote tourism in the liberated territory, provide universal access to health facilities as per international standards, and to introduce telemedicine in far flung areas.