Status quo in Kashmir is unacceptable: President Masood

Khizar Hayat Abbasi
Muzaffarabad: AJK President Sardar Muhammad Masood Khan has said people of Jammu and Kashmir will never accept the status quo in Kashmir and added that recognizing Line of Control (LoC) as permanent border cannot be a viable solution to the lingering dispute.
Talking to a group of senior journalists at President Secretariat here on Monday, he said only people of Jammu and Kashmir have right to decide about their future of their territory.
“People of Jammu and Kashmir want freedom and offering every sacrifice for their just cause”, Masood said and added that unprecedented uprising in Kashmir is itself a referendum against India and denunciation of Indian claim over Kashmir as its integral part”. He said that no solution of Kashmir hammer out behind the door could be acceptable either by Pakistan or the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Reiterating his demand that world community must see the Kashmir through the prism of humanity instead of economic and political interest, he said India is usurper and had occupied Kashmir with military force. The India, he said remained engaged in stifling voice of Kashmiris throughout seventy years since the partition of British India in 1947.
The India, he said, on one hand is committing worst atrocities on Kashmiris for raising their voice for freedom and on the other hand presenting herself as victim by painting the Kashmir liberation struggle as terrorism.
Kashmiris has nothing to do with the terrorism. They are peaceful people and resist and defend themselves when their children are killed and their homes are put on fire by occupation forces, he asserted. India despite clamps down on Kashmir with an iron grip is rapidly losing the hearts and minds of Kashmiris, President Masood said.
Rejecting the Indian allegations that Pakistan is behind the unrest in Kashmir, AJK president said Pakistan being party to the Kashmir dispute can help the people of Kashmir but it has been extending only moral, political and diplomatic support to the struggle of Kashmiri people for their right to self determination.
He also rejected the New Delhi’s assertion that Kashmir is its integral part. Kashmir, he said has never been part of India as struggle of Kashmiris for determination of their future is continued since 1947 and United Nations has recognized it as disputed territory through its resolutions.
“People of Kashmir rejected Indian claim over Kashmir time and again. They negate false claim every day in every nook and corner of the state by raising anti India slogans”, he said. Replying a question about Cross LoC Trade, President said it should continue because the trade is between the Kashmiris living in two parts of the state and is not between India and Pakistan.
To another question, AJK President said that he will not suggest unification of the two factions of All Parties Hurriyat Conference from here. Our leadership in Occupied Kashmir is wise enough to take their decisions themselves keeping in view the ground situation. We salute their wisdom through which they carried their struggle forward and demonstrated unprecedented courage and determination against all the odds.
The president said that India has become totally irrelevant in Kashmir as she has no channel of communication with the struggling people of the state. Pakistan on the other hand keeps consulting the Kashmiri leadership on both sides of LoC before taking any diplomatic initiative on Kashmir issue.
Replying a question about the China- Pakistan Economic Corridor, President Masood said AJK is part and parcel of the project and will benefit from it especially in hydro power generation sector. When asked about the functioning of universities located in different parts of AJK president said merit will be upheld in all recruitments and promotions in the varsities and there will be no compromise on the quality of education.
He said political parties of Pakistan are on one page with regard to Kashmir issue, however, he underscored the need of accelerating efforts for highlighting Kashmir conflict at international level. Sardar Masood Khan lauded the role of media in foiling the nefarious designs of India at Line of Control and exposed its false claims of surgical strikes against Azad Kashmir.