Islamabad: (Parliament Times) The president of Azad Kashmir Sardar Masood Ahmed Khan has said that Indian secret agencies in Indian Held Kashmir have launched a massive crackdown and a vilification campaign to cow down resistance leadership besides denting their public image by leveling baseless allegations.
President Masood Khan expressed these views while talking to Ch. Muhammad Aziz Khan the minister for Works and Communication and Minister for youth and sports Ch. Muhammad Saeed who called on him here on Friday. The systematic persecution of pro-freedom leaders is being carried out under a well thought out plan he said adding that incarcerated leaders including Shabir Ahmed Shah and Asia Idrabi were facing serious life threat in custody. The AJK President demanded that India must immediately stop the witch hunt and stop incarceration of peaceful political workers on trumped up charges.
He said that Kashmiri youth were being callously killed in fake encounters. In view of the deteriorating human rights situation in the region he said that the responsibilities of the government and the people of Azad Kashmir have increased manifold. He said that government has been trying its level best to expose Indian atrocities at international level. The president said that a foreign delegation that has recently concluded its AJK and Pakistan tour was apprised of the prevailing political and human rights situation in the region. He said that systematic persecution of the political workers in “IOK†will not extinguish the Kashmir movement despite India’s malicious designs.
Regarding the socio-economic development of Azad Kashmir he said that after two-fold increase in the development budget the responsibilities of the government have increased manifold. He said that keeping in view the larger interests of the people of the region, timely completion and maintaining the standard of development projects was essentially important.
