Muzaffarabad: Sardar Muhammad Masood, president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir has said people of Jammu and Kashmir will continue their struggle till they achieve their internationally recognized right to self determination. He was addressing a group of trainee officers of Foreign Service Academy currently visiting Azad Kashmir here on Saturday. The members of the delegation of foreign officers Belarus, Ghana, Tanzania, Belgrade, Liberia, Ethiopia, Srilanka, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Maldives, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Laos, Brazil Estonia, Vietnam, South Africa, Macedonia, Slovenia and Albania were told by the president about the prevailing situation in occupied Kashmir and administrative political setup of Azad Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir.
The president said India had amassed 700,000 strong army to fight four to five hundred freedom fighters in occupied valley. The India, he added faced real danger from tens of thousands of unarmed Kashmiri people who raised slogans like ‘Go India Go Back’ in the streets of Kashmir every day. Sardar Muhammad Masood Khan told the diplomats that India army deployed in Kashmir is violating international laws by not distinguishing between combatants and non combatants in Kashmir. He said that Pakistan always sought peaceful settlemt of Kashmir issue through negotiation but India never positively responded. Now we will turn to global community and United Nations to get justice.
He further said Kashmiris are peace loving people but India forced them to take guns in their hands by refusing to grant them their right to self determination.The president briefed the members of the delegation on the genesis of the ongoing struggle of the Kashmiri people for their right to self-determination and highlighted the atrocities and gross human rights violations being committed by Indian security forces. He said the use of pellet guns by the Indian occupying forces on children, as a result of which, more than hundreds of youth had lost their eyesight. People were not only losing their eyesight but also their lives, he told.
He urged the international community not to confuse the heroic struggle of the Kashmiris with terrorism. He also emphasised on the urgent need for a sustained and structured dialogue to resolve the issue of Kashmir which has all the potential to escalate. He also reminded the participants that the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution were being violated with impunity by the Indian forces in the region.
