Islamabad, (Parliament Times) : President Azad Jammu and Kashmir Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry, while referring to the dire situation in the Indian-occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir, has said that it was high time that the overseas Kashmiris should play their due role to help resolve the lingering dispute that has been the main cause and consequence of bloodshed and violence in the region.
The AJK president expressed these views while talking to Pamela Malik, Ghazala Khan and Kanwal Khan of the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Self-Determination Movement UK here today. Hailing the Kashmiri diaspora community’s significant role in promoting the Kashmir cause at international level, the president said overseas Kashmiris owed even a greater responsibility vis a vis resolving the Kashmir issue and highlighting the woeful plight of their Kashmiri brethren who have been terribly suffering under India’s brutal suppression for the past several decades.
Briefing the visiting delegates about the prevailing political and human rights situation in the IoK, the president said that Kashmiris have been facing the brunt of India’s prolonged military occupation with the utmost courage and resilience. Referring to the massive troops’ concentration in the disputed territory, Barrister Chaudhry said that India had turned Kashmir into a military garrison by deploying over 900,000 military and paramilitary troops in the troubled region. The massive troops’ concentration, he said, had made the life of Kashmiris miserable.
“Under the given circumstances, the onus of responsibility to draw world attention towards Indian brutality and barbarism in Occupied Kashmir lies with the Kashmiri expatriate community”, Barrister Chaudhry said, adding that it was a matter of serious concern that India’s apartheid regime had intensified its efforts to bring material change aimed at converting Muslim majority state into a minority. He said that the Modi government had also changed the region’s political landscape through bogus delimitation. In order to thwart India’s nefarious designs in the region, the president said that concerted efforts were required to raise these issues effectively at the global level.