MIRPUR (AJK)  -   Welcoming the appointment of Yousef Aldobeay as OIC’s special envoy on Kashmir, Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Mohammad Masood Khan has described it an important development toward projecting the Kashmir issue at global level, it was officially said. Yousef Aldobeay of Saudi Arabia, who was appointed special envoy on Kashmir at the conclusion of 14th OIC conference held in Makkah Mukarramah, will put forward to the organisation his proposals and recommendations for a peaceful political and diplomatic solution to Kashmir conflict.

Speaking on return home Sunday after representing people of Jammu and Kashmir at the summit for the first time in the OIC’s history, Sardar Masood Khan expressed gratitude to the host of the summit Khadim-e-Haramain Sharifain King Salman Bin Abdel Aziz and Crown-Prince Mohamed Bin Salman for taking special interest in Kashmir issue, and inviting elected leadership of Azad Kashmir to represent people of the state at the summit, AJK Presidential Secretariat said in an official statement released to the media Sunday evening.

Sardar Masood Khan said that his participation in the OIC summit had opened the doors for other international forum to project Kashmir cause, and highlight the struggle of Kashmiri people for the attainment of their right to self-determination in its real perspective, according to the statement.

The AJK president particularly expressed gratitude to the OIC Secretary General Dr Yousef Al-Othaimeen for forthrightly supporting the struggle of Kashmiri people for the right of self-determination and demanding immediate cessation of the worst human rights violations at the hands of Indian occupation forces in the held territory.

The AJK president asserted that his participation in the OIC summit is evident that the Kashmir liberation struggle is gaining vehement support on international level, and the international community has now realised that India is committing worst crimes against humanity in order to perpetuate its illegitimate occupation of Kashmir.

The AJK president stressed international community to prevent India from the use of brute force against innocent and unarmed people in occupied Kashmir. “The international community should mount pressure on India for a peaceful political and diplomatic solution to Kashmir issue so as to prevent bloodletting in occupied Kashmir and to de-escalate tension between two nuclear powers in the region,” he concluded. “The world should remember the fact that Kashmir can be the trigger for a nuclear war in South Asia as it is not mere a territorial issue rather the fate of millions of Kashmirs is attached with the issue,” he underscored.

AJK PM CONDOLES DEMISE OF KHALID MAQBOOL

AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan expressed deep sense of shock and grief over the sad demise of Khalid Maqbool Chatha, a distinguished Lahore-based entrepreneur and the first cousin of senior journalist Altaf Hamid Rao, who died of a cardiac arrest in hospital at the age of 65.

In a condolence message released by media wing of the Prime Minister Secretariat, the premier prayed for the rest of the departed soul in eternal peace and grant of fortitude to the bereaved family to bear the loss with courage.

AJK Minister for Information Raja Muhammad Mushtaq Minhas also expressed grief and sorrow over the death of Khalid Mahmood Chatha, cousin brother of senior Kashmiri journalist AH Rao.

Expressing sympathies with the bereaved family, the minister prayed that may Allah, The Almighty, rest the departed soul at high place in heaven.