Our Correspondent
Muzaffarabad
Sardar Masood Khan, President Azad Jammu and Kashmir, said that Pakistan and the people of Jammu and Kashmir have always welcomed third-party mediation for the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute whether it was by the United Nations, by a permanent member of the Security Council or a person of international stature.
The President made these remarks when he was asked about President Donald Trump’s latest statement in Washington on his willingness to mediate in Kashmir. The AJK President said that it was regrettable that India had once again rejected an offer for mediation, this time, by the United States President.
He said that India wants to confine the Jammu and Kashmir dispute to a bilateral plane and then kill it off. By declaring the international issue of Jammu and Kashmir a bilateral matter, India wants to exclude the people of Jammu and Kashmir, the key party to the dispute, and the United Nations or other actor representing the international community for the process for resolving the Kashmir dispute.
President Trump’s announcement clearly shows that the situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir is very serious and that the problem is by no means a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan alone. It is genuinely an international issue which should be resolved through the UN resolutions on Kashmir and international law.
President AJK said that a series of reports published this year on the horrendous human rights situation in IOK and now the statement by President Trump clearly demonstrate the urgency for resolving the issue in order to stop the massacre of Kashmiris in IOK, give justice to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and remove a serious threat to peace and security in South Asia posed by the unresolved dispute of Jammu and Kashmir.
