Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan Saturday said that Kashmiris who were being slaughtered like animals by the Indian army are part of the body and soul of the Pakistani nation and it is our national responsibility to save them from the worst tyranny.
Addressing seminar titled “Kashmir liberation movement and our national responsibilities” organized by various Pakistani national institutions, he said India was certainly responsible for the agonies of the Kashmiri people but they must not forget the characters like Sheikh Abdullah who had played the role of facilitators for India to grab a major part of the disputed state, AJK President office said.
He said that the reoccupation of occupied Jammu and Kashmir, declaring it part of the Indian Union and to change the demography of the occupied territory was just one phase of the Indian plan, and in the next phase, India wants to invade Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, which India had revealed by issuing new maps and through public statements made by their leaders time and again.
Referring to the situation in occupied Kashmir, President Sardar Masood Khan said more than eight million people of the occupied state have been kept under siege by the Indian Army for the last 16 months where youths were being killed in fake encounters be falsely declaring them as terrorists.
The Kashmiri children as young as nine, ten and eleven years old have been arrested and imprisoned where they are subjected to the worst torture to force them to abandon their struggle for freedom and right to self-determination.
On the other hand, two million Hindu citizens from different parts of India have been brought and settled in Kashmir to change the demographic structure of the disputed territory and this process was still going on the fast track.
Answering various questions of the participants, President Sardar Masood Khan said that the impression that Kashmir resistance movement was confined to only border areas was not correct. He said that details available of martyrs in Kashmir by the Indian Army showed that they belong to all parts of occupied Kashmir.
The Azad Kashmir president said that none of the leaders of the resistance movement including Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Asiya Andrabi, Musarat Alam Butt and others belonged to the border areas which is proof that the freedom movement was a Kashmir-wide and people from all walks of life and schools of thought were part of it.
About international support to the resistance movement, Sardar Masood Khan said,
“We should frequently review our priorities on Kashmir, and decide to expand the Kashmir resistance movement across the world in order to compel powerful countries and
decision-making institutions of the world to speak in favour of the Kashmiri people”, he added.
