Bristol
Sardar Masood Khan, President Azad Jammu and Kashmir, has said that the Kashmiri people will have their freedom from Indian oppression and we will not be intimidated by torture and repression. We will fight this war imposed on us, he said.
The AJK President made these remarks while addressing a Kashmir Conference organized by the Pakistan Association Bristol and the Bristol Kashmir Foundation. The event was attended by Abdul Rashid Turabi, Member of the Public Accounts Committee of the AJK Legislative Assembly, Tim Bowles, Mayor of the West of England, Fahim Kiani, President Tehreek-e-Kashmir UK, Councillors, local notables, civil society members and journalists.
The President on the occasion also thanked Fahim Kiani for organizing a conference on Kashmir at the House of Commons which was attended by numerous MPs, MEPs, journalists, student leaders, academics and human rights activists.
President Masood Khan informed his audience of the recent human rights situation in IOK. He said that after the 05 August siege imposed in IOK the occupation forces have unleashed a new wave of tyranny. Indian occupation forces, he said, have illegally detained thousands of Kashmiri youth and are subjecting them to torture, The Kashmiris are being killed in extra-judicial encounters, protestors are blinded with pellet-firing shotguns and the women are molested and these measures are taken by the Indian occupation forces in a systematic and pre-meditated manner, he said.
The President while appreciating the role of the international media, international civil society and the human rights organizations said that despite India’s imposition of a communication blackout in IOK, reports have been coming out of IOK about the human rights abuses taking place at the hands of Indian occupation forces. Indian government’s efforts to quell the peaceful protests of the Kashmiris were not successful and they were unable to hide the humanitarian crisis in the territory. He also appreciated parliamentarians and lawmakers of UK, European Parliament, France, Norway and other leading countries for raising their voice in support of the Kashmiris. “This space given to us is a breakthrough”, he said.
On the other, he said, global capitals have been ambivalent in their stance towards Kashmir and have instead tried to maintain an artificial balance between Pakistan and India. He urged that humanity must prevail instead of valuing strategic and economic ties that various countries have with India.
The AJK President said that we the people of IOK and Azad Kashmir will fight tooth and nail to oppose the illegal occupation, colonization and bifurcation of the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir territory. He also highlighted the growing ideology of Hindutva – an extremist Hindu Ideology – which is purely based on Hindu religious supremacy. He said that we will have to unite and fight of this extremist doctrine rooted in hatred, xenophobia and fascism as this policy of exclusionism is pure evil, satanic and dark and we must take every measure to thwart it from engulfing our region and world.
