MIRPUR (AJK)-The International community especially the United States must take notice of the gross Human Rights violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) and serious efforts must be made to find a long-lasting solution to the burning issue.
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan made these remarks while speaking to South Asian experts at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC, says an official message released to media here Wednesday evening.
The Middle East Institute is a leading think tank in Washington DC that had invited AJK President Masood Khan to speak on the current dynamics of the Kashmir dispute, the message said.
In his remarks, Masood Khan informed the experts that India’s vicious policy of unleashing state coercion on innocent Kashmiris borders on crimes against humanity. Political expediency and mercantilism must not hold back responsible powers from their moral, political and legal obligation of responding to the well recorded and widely reported incidents of massive violations of human rights violations in the IOK, the AJK president emphasized.
India, the president said, is not only responsible for tormenting the lives of Kashmiris through acts of killing and torture but it is also blackmailing key western nations on the basis of its so-called strategic and economic leverages. Ignoring Indian atrocities would amount to acquiescing to its policy of state coercion as regularly displayed through brutalities perpetrated against the people of the held valley. India had also misled the world by framing the Kashmir issue in the context of terrorism. There was no terrorism in Kashmir, the President Masood Khan said. He highlighted that the predominant reality in Indian Occupied Kashmir was mass killing of the innocent people.
President Masood Khan further stated that human rights violations being perpetrated against the people of the IOK must not be seen through the prism of regional politics. Besides India and Pakistan, the people of Kashmir are an indispensable stakeholder in any decision on their future. He added that the United Nations carries the solemn responsibility to implement the UNSC resolutions on Kashmir.
To a question concerning the UNSC resolutions on Kashmir, President Masood Khan said that India is already in violation of its obligations to the UN. He underscored that the whole process of finding a solution to the Kashmir dispute is anchored in the UNSC resolutions.
President Masood Khan pointed out that in addition to the coercive state machinery; political forces backed by the ruling party are also terrorizing Kashmiris. For the purpose, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is planning to create a mass exodus of the Muslims from Jammu for achieving a favourable demographic outlay in the area, along the lines of the genocide of 237,000 Muslims in 1947, he pointed out. However, the people of Kashmir will never compromise on their political aspirations, President Masood Khan reaffirmed.