By our correspondent.
ISLAMABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir President, Sardar Masood Khan has said that the day of demonstrating solidarity with the people of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) aims to assure them that they are not alone in the struggle for their right to self-determination and to draw world attention towards their legitimate and just demand.
Addressing a virtual seminar organized by Quaid-e-Azam University here on Thursday, he said that the biggest challenge at present is that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his Home Minister Amit Shah and the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat want to transform Jammu and Kashmir into a Hindu majority state.
For this purpose, he maintained, Hindu citizens are being imported from all over India, and they are being rapidly settled in occupied Kashmir. India has settled more than two million Hindu citizens in occupied Kashmir so far, and the number is to be raised to five million.
“The greatest crime taking place in IOJK right now is the uninterrupted and illegal settlement of Hindus from all over India. Now they have come up with the plot to permanently make IOJK a Hindu majority state. Two million Hindus have already been imported. This illegal transplantation of population is a serious violation of international laws and conventions,” he asserted.
The state president regretted that the United Nations had declared to observe the Palestine day, but not such a day has been devoted to Kashmir. However, he went on to say that the event at Qaid e Azam University is a message to the academia and students across the world to raise voice in favour of the oppressed Kashmiri people is their moral obligation.
The virtual seminar was also addressed by Vice-Chancellor Quaid e Azam University Prof. Dr. Mohammad Ali, Ambassador Asif Durrani, Air Vice Marshal (retd) Shehzad Chaudhry, Prof. Dr Amina Mahmood and Prof. Raja Qaisar.
Earlier in a special message on the occasion of Kashmir Solidarity Day being observed on Friday, (February 5) the AJK President expressed the confidence that the day is not far off when the entire world will stand by Kashmiri people as the gruesome crimes of India in the occupied territory have turned the Kashmir solidarity day into an international event.
He said that the Kashmiri people have been rotting under the military siege of India for the last 73 years, and we express our resolute support to the besieged Kashmiri people.
He said that on the international day of solidarity with the Kashmiri people today, tens of thousands of people are pouring into the squares, streets, chambers and halls in Pakistan, Azad Kashmir, and around the world.
“We see the beginning of an international uprising to convey outrage and condemnation over the deepening catastrophe and demand an end to killings, massacres, crimes against humanity, and illicit transfer of Hindus in the occupied territory,” he added.
The state president said that since 1947, the state-sanctioned oppression by occupation forces has claimed half a million lives, and now genocide is being perpetrated with impunity without accountability. “Several generations of the Kashmiri people have shed their blood for justice, self-determination, peace and security and they will not rest until they have reached their destination”, he declared.
Strongly condemning the illegal actions India had been taking since August 5, 2019, to divide the held territory, and to brutalize its people, he asserted that the tyranny and terrorism must be stopped forthwith. Rage, sorrow and distress will not stop the murderous frenzy of the BJP-RSS regime, which, in pursuit of their hatred-driven doctrine, Hindutva, is stealing Kashmiris’ homeland and ripping off their state, he added.
Sardar Masood Khan appealed to the international community, especially the United Nations, to act to save the Kashmiri people from the scourge of annihilation. “Stop sitting on the fence, stop appeasing India because when the evil deed is done, wringing hands in contrition would be too little, too late,” he warned.
