LAHORE - A ban on Jamatud Dawa under foreign pressure will not be an unexpected move for the charitable organisation, JuD chief told senior journalists at a media briefing during the day yesterday, before he was put to house arrest around midnight.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed said the JuD will challenge such a step in a court of law instead of using another nomenclature to continue its activities.
He said the ban reports did not disturb him at all as the organisation would continue to work for the rights of the Kashmiri people and welfare of the downtrodden. “Our work will continue even if I am arrested”.
He highlighted the atrocities being perpetrated by India on the unarmed people of occupied Kashmir, steps being taken by New Delhi to change the demography of the territory under its illegal occupation, and the measures Islamabad should urgently take to help the Kashmiri people get their right to self-determination as enshrined in the UN resolutions.
He called for a joint session of parliament to review the 1972 Simla Accord, formally declare Kashmir as the jugular vein of Pakistan - the words used by the Quaid-i-Azam for it - and map out a new effective policy with the support of all parties to counter the Indian plans to suppress the freedom movement going on occupied Kashmir since 1992.
After US President Trump’s support to India, the JuD chief said, it would be the test of the Pakistani leadership to effectively argue the case of the Kashmiri people at the international level and get them their rights.
He also had a word of advice for the Islamic countries which, he said, should form a bloc parallel to the European Union, have a common currency and an international court to decide cases between the member states.
Hafiz Saeed said there was a marked change in the thinking of the Kashmiri leaders and even those in favour of an independent state in the past were now unanimous that Kashmir should have accession to Pakistan. Pakistani leaders, he said, should also have a similar consensus on the rights of the Kashmiri people.
He said a number of Kashmiri leaders had told him that if India succeeded in crushing the freedom movement in occupied Kashmir and as a result the freedom fighters got disappointed, never again would it be possible for anyone to build the same momentum.
The JuD chief said his organization had done so much welfare work in Sindh and Balochistan that India would never succeed in winning the sympathies of nationalists in these provinces. According to him, JWP leader Shahzain Bugti was prepared to take part in the freedom movement of the Kashmiris along with 50,000 supporters.
He said his organization was also setting up various projects in Gilgi-Baltistan, which is also part of disputed territory.
Answering a question, Hafiz Saeed said the government should not consider promotion of trade ties or friendly relations with India unless Kashmiris got their rights.
About Kashmir Committee Chairman Maulana Fazlur Rehman efforts to highlight the Kashmir dispute at the international level, the JuD said ‘the less said, the better’.
The JuD also plans to hold rallies in the country to highlight the Kashmir issue.
Also, Hafiz Saeed is writing a book that will challenge India’s claim that Kashmiri leader Maharaja Hari Singh had signed documents for Kashmir’s accession to India. He said the documents were forged and his book would prove it.