Defeat in Ladakh blow to India's hegemonic designs: AJK president

MUZAFFARABAD: While describing the defeat of Indian Army at the hands of Chinese troops in Ladakh as a serious blow to India's hegemonic designs, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan on Friday said China has blocked India's aggression in the region by giving a befitting response.

"After unleashing a reign of terror against the Kashmiri people, India had become so bold that it had invaded Galwan valley in Ladakh," he added.

In an interview with a Pakistani news magazine, the AJK president said that despite India's attempts to declare Kashmir its internal issue, Kashmir has emerged an international issue as it was in 1947.

He said that in spite of India's hectic attempts, neither the Kashmiri people could be demoralised nor had there been any change in Pakistan's stand on Kashmir.

"India has forgotten the lesson of the history that an international issue cannot be hidden under the false propaganda or buried under the dead bodies of the oppressed people," he added.

The AJK president said that the just voice which has been rising for the last 73 years, is now echoing in the world parliaments. "This is India's delusion that it can suppress the Kashmir liberation movement through massacre, ethnic cleansing and other tricks against the Kashmiri people," he added.

Sardar Masood Khan said that India had forcibly occupied a part of Jammu and Kashmir and had declared the occupied territory as a buffer zone between Pakistan and India, and on August 5, 2019, India once again occupied the Kashmiri territory and snatched even the symbolic internal autonomy.

The AJK president said that the people of Pakistan, as well as Jammu and Kashmir, are thankful to China that during recent talks with India, it had spurned the Indian action of declaring Ladakh as the part of the union territory. China in its recent talks with India had strongly objected to the repeal of Article 370 and had urged India to withdraw the decision of declaring Ladakh as the union territory.

Sardar Masood Khan said that we are also thankful to China for facilitating in convening three informal sessions of the UN Security Council on Kashmir, and now the severe blow on India on the military front has boosted the morale of the Kashmiri people.

"This is a clear message for the fascist rulers of India that Kashmir is now not an issue of drawing a few lines on the maps of a disputed territory, but it is the question of the political future of 20 million people.

Saying that the Indian Army cannot repulse the Chinese troops, AJK President said people of Pakistan, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan are also fully prepared to counter the Indian aggression. "If the BJP and RSS committed aggression or cast an evil eye on Pakistan or AJK, it will have to bear its dire consequences," he said.

The AJK President went on to say that it is imperative for the good neighbourliness, peace and tranquillity that India improves its relations with Pakistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka because neither India can make them subservient nor the Kashmir issue can be buried by opening fronts against Pakistan.