Pakistan prepared to combat Indian aggression: AJK president

LONDON: President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan has warned India and said people of Pakistan and Kashmir are prepared to combat any aggression of Indian Army. Masood Khan said Pakistan will not tolerate any Indian adventure and combat the Indian Army’s atrocities against innocent people of Jammu and Kashmir. He was talking to Pakistani media here after addressing 3rd Annual Councillors Conference organised by the Pakistan High Commission in London.

Masood Khan said India is violating ceasefire on the Line of Control (LoC) and the international community is silent over it. He urged the diaspora to come out and play their role to build pressure upon United Kingdom to stop India from aggression. He said that people living along both sides of the LoC belong to Pakistan. “They all are innocent which is the reason the Pakistan Army doesn’t fire, but we will continue our moral, ethical and diplomatic support to innocent Kashmiris,” he said.

The AJK president said Pakistan doesn’t want to waste time on useless bilateral talks which had been continuing for decades. “We believe that the Kashmiris are third party in the dialogue and no dialogue can be successful without the participation of Kashmiris,” he said.

Masood Khan said India was continuing barbaric actions against the innocent people of Kashmir including children, elders and women. “The international community should take stern action immediately and pressurise India to stop human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

The AJK president said India is building unlawful dams on the disputed waters. “We will respond with full muscle if India doesn’t stop using the waters of Pakistan. Masood Khan attended the convention as a special guest and apprised the attendees about dire human rights violations in Kashmir. He stated that India is waging three wars: It has cordoned off the entire Kashmir on its side, and is killing and blinding the Kashmiris with impunity; it is waging war across the LoC; and it is engaged in proxies and subversions in Pakistan.

The president also gave a detailed overview of various development projects in AJ&K. Syed Ibne Abbas, Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK, who presided over the convention, thanked the guests for their overwhelming participation in the convention, which he termed a part of the high commission’s efforts to connect with the community and forge better understanding on issues of common interest.

Speaking about Pakistan-UK bilateral relations, he said the two countries have excellent relations in various areas of common interest. However, he expressed disappointment over UK’s sponsoring the move to put Pakistan on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Grey List; a move in total disregard to the sacrifices made by Pakistan in the fight against terrorism. He called upon the councillors/mayors and members of the community to lobby with their MPs to put across Pakistan’s viewpoint on important national, regional and international issues to rectify the wrong perception of the country created by media and hostile external forces.

The high commissioner said the situation on the LoC and working boundary was grim. Quoting the figures, he said that in 2017, as many as 1970 ceasefire violations were made by Indian security forces, whereas in just less than two months into this year, 390 violations have been made causing loss of innocent Kashmiri people. He said Pakistan is observing utmost restraint but there is a limit to this.

The high commissioner particularly mentioned that the latest FCO report on human rights does not mention human rights violations in IHK. “This kind of neglect of the human rights violations cannot be expected from the UK, which is a standard bearer of human rights,” he said.