Kashmiris never considered India their homeland: AJK President

The President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan has said that though the United Nations resolutions gave Kashmiris the option to attach their political affiliations with India or Pakistan, India is not an option for the people of AJK.

“The Kashmiri politicians who had made Delhi their political qibla, against the aspirations of Kashmiris and for the sake their own petty interests, are also regretting and confessing that it was a fatal political mistake”, he said

President Khan also remarked on former chief minister of Indian Illegally Occupied Kashmir Farooq Abdullah’s statement that the people of IIOJK are not free but slaves. He said that it was good that after 73 years the truth was finally revealed to Sheikh Abdullah's family.

He added that though it was an error on Sheikh Abdullah’s part to join hands with Indian rulers in 1947, the entire Kashmiri nation paid the cost collectively in the shape of slavery, oppression, colonialism, and a huge loss of lives since.

According to him the eight million Muslims of occupied Jammu and Kashmir, and 300 million Muslims living in India were considered second and third-class citizens and with conditions being created for them to either convert to Hinduism or leave the country.

He appealed to the people of Azad Kashmir to forget electoral bitterness, focus on the situation in Occupied Kashmir and raise their voices for the oppressed and downtrodden people of the occupied state.

"It is the moral, religious and national responsibility of those living in an atmosphere of freedom and liberty to come forth to help their brothers and sisters who have been forced into slavery," he said.

The president urged people to forge unity within their ranks and file to take the Kashmir freedom movement to its logical conclusion and to “carry forward the mission left incomplete by our forefathers”.