Masood Calls For World Intervention To Help End Indian Atrocities In IOK

Masood calls for world intervention to help end Indian atrocities in IOK

Sardar Masood Khan, President Azad Kashmir has expressed his gratitude to the people of Baluchistan for their unflinching support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for their right to self-determination and freedom from Indian oppression

Quetta; (Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jan, 2019 ) Sardar Masood Khan, President Azad Kashmir has expressed his gratitude to the people of Baluchistan for their unflinching support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for their right to self-determination and freedom from Indian oppression. President Khan made these remarks while addressing the participants of a National Security Workshop organised by the Southern Command here on Wednesday. Apprising the participants about the shocking crimes being committed by the Indian occupation forces in the Indian Occupied Kashmir, he said that only an intensified and unified political and diplomatic campaign by Pakistan and the people of Jammu and Kashmir can help stop the Indian atrocities and to find a just solution of the Kashmir dispute.

The President said that India believes that it can resolve the Kashmir dispute by the use of brute force and state terrorism and by blocking all avenues for diplomacy and dialogue. This, he said, “is an illusion because India’s policy of brutalising the people of Kashmir for the past 71 years has not succeeded. It will not succeed in the future.” The President said that former BJP government External Minister Yashwant Sinha has recently revealed that the ruling BJP is using the doctrine of brute force, advocated by Chanakya centuries ago, to kill and crush Kashmiris.

Sinha said that India did not believe in consensus, democracy or humanity (Insaniyat), but only in the use of brute force, Masood Khan added. Sardar Masood Khan maintained that India has unleashed a proxy wars in Pakistan to punish the country for its principled stand on Kashmir. But the gallant people of Baluchistan and other provinces, through their sheer will and determination, have repulsed such dastardly moves. The President informed his audience of the ongoing carnage in IOK especially targeting teenagers in cordon and search operations.

“The occupation forces rape and dishonour women and have not even spared young girls. An eighteen month old Hina Nisar is the latest victim of the lethal pellet guns being used to blind Kashmiris”, he said. People are denied their right to offer their Juma prayers in Jamia Masjid in Srinagar. The President thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi for their efforts to apprise the UN about the brutal killings in Pulwama and other cities of IOK and for instructing Embassies to highlight the horrendous human rights violations in IOK, with renewed vigour.

He said last year two comprehensive reports on human rights violations being committed with impunity by the Indian forces were released by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the British Parliament showing how Indian forces are using excessive force in a vain effort to subjugate Kashmiris. After the publication of these reports, the people of Jammu and Kashmir rightly expect from the UN Security Council and Secretary General Antonio Gutteres to take cognisance of the grave situation in Kashmir.

“The Secretary General should appoint a special envoy to take an initiative on the invocation and implementation of the Kashmir resolutions and explore additional diplomatic options under the United Nations Charter”, he said. Speaking about the global perspective on Kashmir, the President said that we will have to shape it because nobody, especially influential capitals, will come forward voluntarily to rescue Kashmiris. “The world will respond, if we are diligent”, he said.

If the UN resolutions have not been implemented, he said, because of the Indian intransigence, the UN’s responsibility does not end there. “India cannot render the UN helpless”, the President said adding that there are options available under Chapter VI of the Charter, Article 33 and 34, to resort to further “negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, regional ... arrangements, or other peaceful means .

..” and the Security Council, in particular, “may investigate any dispute, or any situation which might lead to international friction or give rise to a dispute, in order to determine whether the continuance of the dispute or situation is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security”. The dire and appalling situation in the IOK is ripe for that kind of intervention by the UN. The way forward for Kashmir is diplomacy, but Pakistan should be especially cautious in going back to the trap of bilateral talks, without the intermediation of the United Nations and without the participation or representation of Kashmiris.

“India, from time to time uses the hoax of talks to blur focus on Kashmir, get additional unilateral concessions from Pakistan, disenfranchise Kashmiris, and perpetuate its occupation of the territory”, he said. At the very beginning, the Kashmir dispute was an international issue; it should not be bilateralised to reinforce India’s advantages, albeit inadvertently. He said that many formulas have been floated for a possible solution to the Kashmir dispute, other than the UN Security Council resolutions, which have been the bottom line for the Kashmiris and Pakistan.

These include the 4-point Musharraf formula, the Good Friday Agreement, the Andorra model, and the Owen Dixon plan, among others. The President said that any formula that is developed should be acceptable to all stakeholders, especially the Kashmiris who are the key constituents aspiring to decide their political future. The UN Security Council resolutions should be the starting point for any fresh engagement, because the Kashmir dispute is unique in many respects.

However, the first task for the international community, he said, is to prepare and persuade India to come out of denial and sincerely work for a political and diplomatic solution of the dispute. Until then, unilateral, premature formulas and concessions should not be aired because it takes two to tango and, in this case, it should take three to tango, with the facilitation of the UN. Concessions are made when all parties to the dispute and their interlocutors, after establishing their credibility and sincerity of purpose, go down to the wire in intense negotiations, to find a win-win solution.

The President apprised the participants of the frequent violations of the Line of Control by India of the 2003 Ceasefire Agreement leading to loss of precious lives, serious injuries and destruction of property of civilian population. This past year, 2018, has been the bloodiest during which the Indian occupation forces violated the ceasefire line 2,350 times resulting in loss of 36 lives and serious injuries to 142 persons. President Masood Khan said that Azad Kashmir was focused on the development of its infrastructure, energy, industrial, mining, and tourism sectors and, in this context, will like to collaborate more closely with Baluchistan.