Our Correspondent
Philadelphia
Azad Jammu and Kashmir, President Sardar Masood Khan has said that Kashmir was undergoing the darkest time of its history, but the morale of its people was very high and no power on the earth could defeat them nor could force them to compromise on their dignity and identity.
Speaking at an event organized by World Affairs Council of Philadelphia in Washington late Wednesday, he said that Indian hegemonic designs and aggressive actions had brought the region at the brink of disastrous war, an official statement released to media here Thursday by AJK Presidential Secretariat said. The AJK president said that a sizeable majority of Kashmiri people wanted to accede to Pakistan as was resolved by them in July 1947 through an accession to Pakistan resolution.
‘A small portion of Kashmir now known as Azad Jammu and Kashmir gained independence but a large chunk of the state was under foreign occupation and its people are terrifically suffering under Indian repression,’ he added. Condemning August 5 action of Narendra Modi regime, he said that New Delhi had invaded the disputed territory and occupied it. ‘The streets in occupied Kashmir were deserted and gun totting soldiers patrolling; pellet guns were being randomly used; thousands of youth have been detained and shifted to prisons outside Kashmir; the women bodies had been objectified and they were treated as spoils of war,’ he added.
Terming unilateral actions by India as unlawful and the violation of Geneva Convention and its additional protocol, AJK President expressed gratitude to the global media, world parliaments, and the US congressmen for raising voice for the Kashmiri people, but regretted that major world capitals had been silent. He recalled that many countries in the last century had appeased the Nazi regime which had led to World War-II. ‘Today if you appease India, the situation in the region would take a turn for the worst,’ he warned.
He lamented that the UN Security Council had only held an informal session on Kashmir that concluded without a Presidential Statement.
