Islamabad: President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan on Tuesday said Kashmiris living on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) are united to frustrate Indian conspiracy to abrogate Article 35-A of its constitution.
Commenting on the planned Indian move to abolish Article 35-A, the President said that the nefarious Indian move is clearly aimed at further scuttling the minimum privileges that Kashmiris have under the Indian constitution.
“India employed such tactics in the past but failed, and this time too, Kashmiris will thwart its nefarious designs,” President Masood emphasized.
He said any move to tinker with Article 35-A is a step to undermine the Kashmiri peoples struggle for their right to self-determination and bury the Kashmir dispute under the weight of oppression and machinations.
Sardar Masood Khan, while fully supporting the stance taken by the Joint Resistance Movement, legal and business fraternity and civil society of IOK, said that large-scale protests across the Occupied Territory reflects and demonstrates the will of the Kashmiris against the petition seeking repeal of the article.
Condemning Indian forces’ high handedness and repression against the people in Occupied Kashmir in the wake of the protest against New Delhi’s move, President Masood Khan said the people and government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir fully endorse the position taken by Joint Resistance Movement.
The unprecedented protests in the Chenab Valley, Jammu, Ladakh and Kargil against Indian attempts send a clear and strong message that all Kashmiris will never compromise on their separate identity.
The President called upon the United Nations to intercede in the matter because the move by India to change the demography of Kashmir, under the guise of the repeal of Article 35-A is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Additional Protocol-I.
Under the Statutes of the International Criminal Court, transfer by the occupying power of parts of its civilian population into the territory it occupies constitute a war crime.
The President said under the guise of abolition of Article 35-A, India is trying to pave the way for the settlement of Pundits, establishing colonies for former armed forces personnel, permanent settlement of the so-called West Pakistan Refugees and transfer of Hindus from Punjab, Bihar, Rajasthan, Bengal and other parts of India into the Occupied Kashmir. This kind of forced and planned migration into the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) must be stopped because IOK is a disputed territory, whose fate has yet to be decided in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
