Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan has said that commendable sectarian harmony prevails in AJK and "there has been no divide or discrimination on the basis of Sunni and Shiite.
He expressed his resolve to maintain the unity in upcoming Muharamul Haram along with taking all preventive measures to contain the spread of coronavirus during Eidul Azha and Ashura processions. "All of us are unanimous on Islam, and complete unity will be demonstrated on the occasions of the upcoming Eidul Azha and Ashura."
The president was addressing through video link a meeting of the governors and religious scholars of all the four provinces of Pakistan, as well as ulema from Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, chaired by President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday.
The conference was also addressed besides provincial governors, by Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri and Interior Minister Ijaz Shah, while in Muzaffarabad the new AJK Chief Secretary Dr Shehzad Khan Bangash and other senior officials besides ulema attended the session through video link.
In his address, President Masood said that the people had full freedom to live according to their thoughts and beliefs, and the state is the custodian of the life and property of people of all schools of thought.
He, however,, lamented that on the other side of the Line of Control (LoC) in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K), "our brothers and sisters are not only being kept deprived of religious freedom but the right to live is also being denied to them".
Tragically, he said, the Muslims were not allowed to go to the mosques and hold Majalis-e-Aza but the Indian Hindus are free to perform Amarnath Yatra in the occupied territory.
President Masood said that in order to change the demography of the Muslim majority state of Kashmir, more than 32,000 Indian Hindus have been issued the domicile of Kashmir during the last two months while the state subjects are being deprived of their entity.
"The youth are being subjected to target killings under the garb of fake encounters on a daily basis or they are being arrested and severely tortured in jails."
He called upon the participants of the meeting to besides approving a resolution against the Indian brutalities in Occupied Kashmir, pray to Allah to rid the Kashmiri people of the Indian imperialistic repression at the earliest.
About coronavirus, the AJK president said that the situation was fully under control in Azad Kashmir, and due to effective measures taken by the state government, more than 1,000 affected people have recovered against the deaths of 46 people. He said that all possible preventive measures will be adopted during Eidul Azha and Asuhra Muharram to contain the spread of the pandemic.
Earlier, addressing the meeting, Member of AJK Council of Islamic Ideology Allama Kifayat Hussain Naqvi and Chairman Jafria Supreme Council Syed Shabbir Hussain Bukhari said that the people of Azad Kashmir were the unpaid ideological defenders of Pakistan, and we would follow in letter and spirit whatever strategy the federal government adopts for Eidul Azha and Ashura.
They also appealed to the Pakistani people to set aside sectarian and other differences, and demonstrate complete unity in their rank and file for the sake of security and stability of Pakistan and to defeat the satanic Indian designs in the region.
They particularly thanked the presidents of Pakistan and AJK for convening the meeting and holding consultations to evolve a strategy to ensure interfaith harmony and to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
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