India neither democratic nor secular: AJK president

MIRPUR: Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan has said that India’s claims about being the world’s largest democracy stand exposed to the entire world.

“India is neither a democratic nor secular state where minorities and non-Hindu people are being denied their right to live,” he said.

In a message released to the media on the eve of India’s so-called Republic Day on Sunday, the AJK president said the freedom loving people across the world, particularly the people of Pakistan and Kashmir, were observing black day to expose India’s hegemonic and fanatic designs, particularly the oppressive face of the Indian government, ruling Bharatia Janata Party, and its ally RSS.

The AJK president lamented that even after 72 long years, India continues to occupy the Muslim majority Kashmir and now under a Satanic plan it was ousting the Kashmiri people from their homeland.

"The plan is designed to ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri people and turn the Muslim majority of Kashmir into a minority," he added.

Sardar Masood Khan pointed out that when the Modi regime attempted to impose its fascism on the Indian Muslims and other minorities, the whole of India had risen up against the BJP and the RSS, and thus the extremist Narendra Modi paved the way for Kashmir-like uprising in the length and cranny of his own country.

The AJK president strongly condemned the unlawful Indian actions of August 5, 2019. "We convey to India to lift its occupation of Kashmir, pull back its occupation troops, end the siege and grant right of self-determination to the IOK people," he said and added that the occupied territory had neither been the part of India nor will it happen in future.