Don’t wait for war, it has begun: Sardar Masood

Islamabad : “It is time to react and not wait for the war because the war has already begun,” said Sardar Masood Khan, President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir while speaking at a seminar ‘Kashmir under Siege’ organized by the External Publicity Wing of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting at a local hotel Friday afternoon.

“The Indian Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, even the Army Chief have been openly threatening of disintegrating Pakistan. They have already launched this war in many ways, keeping Pakistan engaged militarily as well as diplomatically.

“They will not stop at that. They can launch a false flag operation any time and would not hesitate to start a controlled conventional war, just stopping short of going nuclear to capture the AJ&K and Gilgit-Baltistan. Its time for Pakistan to respond not only to protect AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan but the people in the Indian occupied Kashmir as well,” the AJ&K President said.

Sardar Masood urged Pakistan Government to react and not wait for the things to get worse.

“Their intentions are clear. There is a need to respond practically and effectively. There is a need to engage the world through diplomatic efforts and Kashmiri and Pakistani Diaspora, which is almost 10 million strong all over the world should be used to highlight issue of Kashmir globally,” Sardar Masood said.

He said that it is not the last 253 days that Kashmir is under siege. Kashmiris are under siege for the last almost four hundred years. They have never been allowed to govern themselves. Be that the Dogra Raj or the rule of Sikh Maharaja, Kashmiris have always been under siege and struggling for their rights through all those four centuries,” the AJ&K President Sardar Masood said.

Syed Fakhar Imam, who headed the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir for some time, said that after the act of August 5 of accession of Kashmir as Union Territory has internationalized the Kashmir issue.

“It is no more a bilateral issue between Pakistan and India. It has become an international issue of human rights and deprivation of identity for the people of Indian occupied Kashmir. It is for the first time that the UN Security Council has taken up the issue twice in a year and have declared that Kashmir is an international issue to be resolved and it is no more a bilateral issue between Pakistan and India,” Fakhar Zaman said.

“Not only the UN but the EU, France for the first time, Kuwait and many other countries and international forums have expressed their concerns over the situation in Indian occupied Kashmir. Had this COVID19 pandemic had not hit the world and distracted international attention from Kashmir issue, there would be have been much stronger reaction from the international community against India,” Syed Fakhar Imam said.

He said that China played a big role in bringing up the matter of Kashmir in the UNSC and it was China on both occasions which brought the Russians around to support the move on Indian occupied Kashmir.

“Now the latest initiatives by the Indian government about Kashmir have turned it into an international issue to be resolved and the resolution of the situation in the UN resolution of granting the right of plebiscite to the Kashmiri people,” Syed Fakhar Iman said.

Earlier, the Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Shibli Faraz said that the nation under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, had dedicated all efforts and energies to project the Kashmir issue at international fora.

“We shall continue to do so and we shall continue to extend our moral and ethical support to the Kashmiri brethren in their just struggle for the right to self-determination. Subjugation of Kashmiri Muslims had been going on for the last seven decades through military means, but the present Indian government has crossed all limits to trample human dignity on August 5, 2019 by unlawfully legitimizing its blatant acts of aggression in the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” Shibli Faraz said.