MIRPUR (AJK) - Ghazi-i-Millat Sardar Ibrahim Khan was a hero for the people of Jammu and Kashmir as, in his political career, he led Azad Kashmir to freedom and liberation from the brutal rule of the Maharaja and later led Kashmir’s struggle for the right to self-determination.

These remarks were made by Sardar Masood Khan, the president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, on the occasion of the 14th death anniversary of State of Azad Kashmir’s founding President.

Paying tributes to Sardar Ibrahim, Masood Khan said that if Sardar Ibrahim had not played his heroic and decisive role in 1947-48, there would have been no Azad Kashmir; and if Azad Kashmir had not been liberated, the issue of Kashmir would have died for all the times, as was the case with regard to Hyderabad and Junagarh.

Sardar Ibrahim, he said, is remembered and revered as “Quaid-e-Azam Sani” because of his high ideas, strong commitment and principled politics. Masood said that after the initial phase of leading the liberation moment, Ibrahim worked hard for the adoption of the UN Security Council resolutions which mandated holding of a plebiscite to ascertain the wishes of Kashmiri people. “That plebiscite has not been held until today because of India’s obduracy,” he said.

Ghazi-i- Millat Sardar Ibrahim, the AJK president said, was a towering statesman, a neat and clean politician and an effective administrator. He said that respect for Sardar Ibrahim spans more than seven decades as his appeal is intergenerational. He said that in his life time, he was loved by millions and even today he is the role model for younger generation.

He said that accession to Pakistan is in the blood and DNA of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. “Pakistan is incomplete without Kashmir; and Kashmir has no identify without Pakistan,” he said.

The AJK president said that if the Maharajah of Kashmir, the Indian rulers and British Viceroy, had not conspired and colluded in 1947 to disrupt the historical trend and aspiration of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir would have become part of Pakistan.

“This, therefore, is an unfinished business for Pakistan and Kashmiris, as for the international community,” the President said. “Today India kills and terrorizes Kashmiris seventy years later to bludgeon them into submission, but the Kashmiris reject India’s occupation and tyranny.”

He said that all the political parties and governments in Azad Kashmir have vowed that Kashmir would accede to Pakistan. It was, he said, in fact seventy years ago at the residence of Sardar Ibrahim in Srinagar that the resolution of Jammu and Kashmir’s  accession to Pakistan was passed.

“History has proved that this was a far-sighted and prescient decision by the founding fathers of Azad Kashmir,” the President said. He said that come what may Kashmiris will secure their right to self-determination despite India’s repression and machinations.

“The night of Indian oppression and brutalities would come to an end and dawn of freedom is our destiny. Nobody can stop Kashmiris from attaining this fundamental right,” he said. He demanded that international community cast away its cloak of expediency and the so-called impartiality, as well as appeasement of India; and help Pakistan and other freedom loving forces to end India’s crimes against humanity in the Indian Occupied Kashmir. He also demanded that the UN secretary general should intercede to save Kashmiris from the scourge of war imposed on them by India.

Sardar Masood Khan appealed to the Kashmiris, people of Pakistan and the diaspora community to carry forward the mission of Ghazi-i-Millat Sardar Ibrahim Khan by forging unity, by raising Kashmir issue at the UN and other international forums, by using the new strengths of the diaspora community and by strategically leveraging the media.