Int’l community should play due role for Kashmir resolution: AJK president

Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) President Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhary urged the international community on Wednesday to play an effective role in resolving the lingering Kashmir dispute in accordance with the United Nations resolutions for regional and global peace and security.

In his annual speech to the Legislative Assembly (LA), he expressed concern over the grave human rights abuses in the Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and pointed out that India was making quick changes in the state’s demography after its August 5, 2019 illegal acts, besides altering the majority of Muslims population.

He made it clear that the IIOJK people, who had rendered tremendous sacrifices, would never bow before the aggressor. Their precious blood would bring fruit soon with the dawn of freedom from the Indian yoke, he remarked.

The AJK president asked the international community to take notice of India’s nefarious acts like the issuance of citizenship to more than four million non-residents and altering the delimitations to impose a Hindu chief minister. The ultimate goal was to crush the Kashmiris struggle for right to self-determination and sustain its illegal occupation, he added.

Read more: Amnesty International expresses concern over HR violations in IIOJK

He said the Kashmir resolution was all the more important as both India and Pakistan were nuclear powers and any minor mistake might lead the entire world to a disaster.

He urged the AJK people to highlight the human rights abuses in the IIOJK through mainstream media and social media to draw the attention of international community towards the lingering issue. The AJK government had the prime responsibility in that regard.

Barrister Sultan appreciated the Kashmiri diaspora in the West for highlighting the Kashmir issue in their respective countries and at forums like parliaments, besides sensitising the public. He referred to his recent visits to the United States and different European countries for the purpose.

Meanwhile, the Legislative Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution calling upon the international community to take cognisance of the rights abuses in the IIOJK and play its role for the just and durable solution of the issue.

The resolution was jointly tabled by Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan, opposition leader Chaudhry Latif Akbar, PPP President Chaudhary Yaseen, PML-N leader Raja Farooq Haider Khan, PML-N AJK President Shah Ghulam Qadir, former AJK prime minister Sardar Attique Ahmad Khan and others.

Sardar Tanveer, while moving the resolution in the house, said Kashmir was the oldest issue on the UN agenda, which needed to be taken up on priority in the interest of durable peace in the region and international security.

The resolution upheld the unbreakable political, moral and diplomatic support of Pakistan for the cause of Kashmir and lauded the sacrifices being rendered by the people of Jammu and Kashmir for their just cause.

The resolution expressed concern over the acts of demographic changes like settlements of non-residents in the held valley and delimitations to turn the Muslim majority into a minority and impose Hindu leadership on them, and demanded the United Nations to take cognisance of the matter.

It also rejected all unilateral acts taken by the Indian government onward August 05, 2019, and made it clear that there would be no alternative of the right to self-determination and people of Jammu and Kashmir would never accept the division of their state.

The resolution pointed out that the IIOJK was turned into the biggest military zone by the Indian government and expressed its concern over the presence of nearly one million armed forces in the occupied valley. It condemned all acts taken by the Indian government like so-called encroachment operations to occupy civilian lands.

It also condemned extra-judicial killings, search operations, arrests of leadership under the black laws and the taking over of All parties Hurriyat conference (APHC) office in Srinagar by the Indian forces.

The resolution reiterated unconditional support by the people and the government of Pakistan to the people of IIOJK for their right to self-determination and demanded the Indian government to allow impartial investigations of the human rights abuses in the valley.