MIRPUR (AJK) - Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan, while terming Turkey as a symbol of dignity and justice in the contemporary world, said that Pakistan and Turkey are brotherly Muslim countries and have identical stand and approach on important global issues including Kashmir.

He said this in a video message on Sunday on the occasion of the launching of the web portal of International Civil Society and Strategic Advocacy Organization, Kashmir Civitas in the Turkish language; the AJK Presidential secretariat informed the media.

“Pakistan and Turkey are two countries but their people feel as if they are one homeland. Their hearts beat together. Turkey today has become a symbol of dignity and justice.” Khan said.

AJK President expressed his confidence that Kashmir Civitas web portal will create new digital space across the globe to highlight the plight of the Kashmiri people - the killings, blinding, torture, sexual violence, dispossession, land grab - in the Indian Occupied Kashmir and provide an advocacy platform for Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.

Describing relationship between Turkey and Jammu and Kashmir as brotherly and time-tested, Masood said AJK will never forget that Turkey was the first international responder to the 2005 devastating earthquake and it had helped us rebuild three cities in the earthquake affected areas and left behind an imprint and signature of friendship all over Azad Kashmir.

Pak, Turkey are two countries but their people feel as if they are from one homeland

Recently, he maintained that he himself had paid many visits to Turkey and personally witnessed the warmth of the Turkish people for the people of Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir.

Expressing gratitude for the unflinching support of the people and the government of Turkey to the Kashmir issue, he said that we hope that Turkey will play an active role in the resolution of Kashmir issue.

He particularly thanked the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and said that while adopting a principled stand on the Kashmir issue, he had forcefully represented sentiments of the Kashmiri people in the UN General Assembly, and while in his address to the parliament of Pakistan, he reiterated his stand.

Lauding Turkey’s concept of humanitarian diplomacy, Sardar Masood Khan hoped that the forum of Kashmir Civitas will play an important role to apprise the people of Turkey about the agonies of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and expose ethnic cleansing of Kashmiris at the hands of Indian forces, and will also project the Kashmir cause in an effective manner.

Meanwhile, in another video message, the AJK president has once again appealed to the people of the liberated territory particularly businessmen, traders and the religious scholars to adopt preventive measures to save their own lives and the lives of other people from the novel coronavirus, and cooperate with the state machinery in enforcing the government measures including lockdown.

He said that coronavirus is a dangerous pandemic which is targeting every rich, poor, old aged person, youth as well as male and female, and the use of sanitizer and masks side by side with following guidelines of the government was the sole option to contain the spread of the virus.

The AJK president said that till the people of Azad Kashmir adopted preventive measures, not a single death had occurred, but now 20 to 30 new cases are being reported daily, while more than one dozen deaths have taken place. He urged the people particularly business community and religious scholars side by side with the common folk to demonstrate a sense of responsibility during relaxation of lockdown.