Dallas: Sardar Masood Khan, President of Azad Kashmir, said that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is not a frozen conflict, but one that needs urgent attention of the international community, and especially of the United States. The Kashmiris, he said, have been giving sacrifices for the past seventy years and Pakistan and the people of Kashmir have kept the issue alive in the international forums.
“The conflict is not frozen in history, but one that has become a symbol of the failure of the United Nations”, the President made these remarks while addressing the World Affairs Council of Dallas, where he was received by its President and CEO Jim Falk. Later, he also had a luncheon meeting with Congressman Pete Sessions from Dallas and addressed two events organized by Ghazala Habib, Chairperson of the Friends of Kashmir in Dallas.
He thanked members of the World Affairs Council for taking keen interest in the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and invited them to visit Azad Kashmir. “The US civil society”, he said, “can play a crucial role in creating a greater awareness about the horrific human rights situation in the Indian Occupied Kashmir, where 700,000 occupation forces were brutalizing and terrorizing peace-loving Kashmiris whose only crime is that they are demanding realization their inalienable, and internationally recognized, right to self-determination.”
“The international community cannot, and should not be a mere spectator of the slaughter of Kashmir”, the AJK President said while underlining that despite the United States’ close strategic and economic ties with India, it should not allow India to continue its killing spree in the occupied territory.
He said there are two pressing priorities: one, to take steps to put an end to Indian repression in IOK and find ways to resolve the Kashmir dispute. “The non-resolution of the dispute is the root cause of the unending spate of killings and crimes against humanity in IOK by Indian forces”, the President said while emphasizing the need to end this saga of savagery in Kashmir.
He clarified that the peaceful struggle of the Kashmiris for their rights is being misrepresented by India as militancy and terrorism. “Nothing could be farther from the truth. Indian soldiers had waged a war against unarmed civilians in Kashmir”.
The AJK President said that recently a window of opportunity had been opened by Pakistan’s offer to prepare the ground for re-engagement between India and Pakistan by arranging a meeting between the Foreign Ministers of the two countries on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. India first accepted the offer and then reneged plunging the region once again into uncertainty and turbulence.
Sardar Masood Khan said that the recent UN report on the situation in IOK had recommended establishment of a Commission of Inquiry to report on and monitor rights violations in Kashmir. India, he said, should not be allowed to block the establishment of the Commission.
Speaking to the large gatherings of Pakistani and Kashmiri diaspora community, the President appealed to them to play their role in advancing the cause of Kashmir by reaching out to the Congressmen and Senators of their respective areas and highlighting the plight of Kashmiris by writing articles on Kashmir in the local print and electronic media. “Addressing communications to the US lawmakers, meeting them, supporting their election campaigns, as well as using the new and traditional media, will create space and understanding in regard to the Kashmir issue”, he said.
The local businessmen and entrepreneurs showed a keen interest in the development projects in Azad Kashmir about which the President briefed his audience. President Masood Khan invited them to invest in Azad Kashmir in its infrastructure, power generation, tourism and industrial sectors.
