UNSG call for peace sans Kashmir meaningless: AJK president

Antonio Guterres must make an appeal to Indian occupation forces to stop killing Kashmiris in IIOJK, says Masood Khan

ISLAMABAD:

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has called upon the UN Secretary General António Guterres to use his influence for the cessation of the massacre of innocent people in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and halt of illegal settlement of hundreds of thousands of Hindus in the disputed territory.

Expressing his reaction over the ceasefire appeal made by the UN Secretary-General to the people and groups involved in conflicts across the world, the AJK president said that the appeal for peace and tranquillity without any reference to Kashmir is incomplete and meaningless.

“UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres must make an appeal to Indian occupation forces to stop killing Kashmiris in IIOJK and call out India for illegally settling thousands of Hindus in the disputed territory. These are crimes against humanity. Without mentioning Kashmir, his call is incomplete,” he added.

Masood said that 8 million people of IIOJK have been besieged by about 1 million Indian troops for the last 14 months. "On the one hand, they are facing repression of the Indian army while on the other, they are fighting the pandemic of novel coronavirus, and many of them are of the opinion that the repression of the Indian troops and the ill-treatment of the Indian government towards them is more disastrous and painful than the novel coronavirus."

He lamented that under the garb of Covid-19, the Indian army was massacring the Kashmiri people in the occupied territory, youth are being incarcerated, and Indian citizens are being granted domicile of Kashmir and are being settled in the homeland of the Kashmiri people.

The AJK president asserted that all this is being done to turn the Muslims into a minority in Kashmir and to eliminate the Islamic entity of the state once and for all.

"The settlement of non-Kashmiri subjects in the occupied territory not only negates the UN resolutions but under the Geneva Convention and other international laws, this is a war crime as well," he said, adding that being a custodian of peace and security as well as a human rights champion, it is obligatory for the United Nations particularly the Security Council and it's Human Rights Council to intervene and hold India accountable for violating international laws and stop it from the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri people.

Strongly condemning eviction of nomads of IIOJK from their centuries-old localities and destroying their mud houses, the state president said that this action Indian authorities were reminiscent of the campaign Hitler had launched against Romanis in the first half of the 20th century.

“Like Hitler killed hundreds of thousands of Romanis (or Roma gypsies), Indian occupiers in IIOJK are going after Gujjar Muslims and Bakarwals (nomads). Occupation forces are demolishing their dhoks and baeks, temporary summer residences for them and livestock in pastures at heights,” Masood asserted.

Terming latest Indian move to hold elections of the so-called District Development Councils (DDCs) in the disputed territory as a ruse, the AJK president said it is another attempt on the part of New Delhi to deceive the international community and the Kashmiri people.

He warned that those taking part in elections will endorse Delhi’s colonial rule in IIOJK.