“Gross Human Rights violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) pose an existential threat to the people of Kashmir” says President AJK Masood Khan.

The International community especially the United States must take notice of the gross Human Rights violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) and serious efforts must be made to find a lasting solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan made these remarks while speaking to South Asia experts at the Middle East Institute today.

The Middle East Institute is a leading think tank in Washington DC that had invited President Masood Khan to speak on the current dynamics of the Kashmir dispute.
In his remarks, President Masood Khan informed the experts that India’s vicious policy of unleashing state coercion on innocent Kashmiris bordered on crimes against humanity. Political expediency and mercantilism must not hold back responsible powers from their moral, political and legal obligation of responding to the well recorded and widely reported incidents of massive violations of human rights violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), he emphasized.

India, the President said, was not only responsible for tormenting the lives of Kashmiris through acts of killing and torture but it was also blackmailing key western nations on the basis of its so-called strategic and economic leverages. Ignoring Indian atrocities would amount to acquiescing to its policy of state coercion as regularly displayed through brutalities perpetrated against the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK). India had also misled the world by framing the Kashmir issue in the context of terrorism.

There was no terrorism in Kashmir, the President said. He highlighted that the predominant reality in Indian Occupied Kashmir was mass killing of the innocent people.

President Masood Khan further stated that the Human Rights violations being perpetrated against the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) must not be seen through the prism of regional politics. Besides India and Pakistan, the people of Kashmir were an indispensable stakeholder in any decision on their future. He added that the United Nations carried the solemn responsibility of implementing the UNSC resolutions on Kashmir.

Responding to a question related to UNSC resolutions on Kashmir, President Masood Khan said that India was already in violation of its obligations to the United Nations. He underscored that the whole process of finding a solution to the Kashmir dispute was anchored in the UNSC Resolutions.

President Masood Khan pointed out that in addition to the coercive state machinery, political forces backed by the ruling party were also terrorizing the Kashmiris. In this regard, he pointed out that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was planning to create a mass exodus of Muslims from Jammu for achieving a favorable demographic outlay in the area, along the lines of the genocide of 237,000 Muslims in 1947.

However, the people of Kashmir will never compromise on their political aspirations, President Masood Khan reaffirmed.

Washington DC,
05 December 2017