The Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan on Tuesday expressed a deep sense of sorrow and grief over the loss of 60 precious lives and injuries to a large number of people in an avalanche in Neelum valley and other parts of Azad Kashmir
ISLAMABAD (Pakistan Point News - 14th January, 2020) The Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan on Tuesday expressed a deep sense of sorrow and grief over the loss of 60 precious lives and injuries to a large number of people in an avalanche in Neelum valley and other parts of Azad Kashmir.
He has directed the district and local administration to gear up rehabilitation and rehabilitation of the affected people. The president directed the health department and other concerned organizations to timely provide medical aid to the injured, and take steps to extend food and residential facilities to the displaced persons.
The state President also thanked the armed forces of Pakistan for immediately launching rescue and relief operation in the calamity-hit areas. It may be recalled that avalanches in Sargan Bakwali area of Neelum had claimed 40 lives while twenty other people lost their lives in Kel, Lawat and other parts of the valley. He assured all help to those hit by the calamity to rebuild their lives.
Meanwhile, the AJK president has said that it had been the firm stand of the people and the government of Azad Kashmir to grant all rights to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan without affecting the ongoing movement for the right of self-determination in occupied Kashmir.
Talking to a high-level delegation of Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Council headed by the chief of council's standing committee Ashraf Sada at Kashmir House here on Tuesday, he said we consider the people of Gilgit-Baltistan as our part and parcel.
Referring to his visit to the Gilgit-Baltistan region last year, Sardar Masood Khan said that during meetings with the governor, chief minister, members of the cabinet, members of bar council, media and civil society, he had explained his stand about the rights of the people of the region. "I was happy to note that the people of Gilgit-Baltistan had a firm commitment to the right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people, and they were prepared to offer every sacrifice for the supreme cause," he added.
The AJK president said that during a visit to the Karakoram University, he had noted that the youth were not only imbibed with the spirit of getting an education but they also had a clear vision of the construction and development of the region and prosperity of the people.
He said that we had opened the doors of universities of Azad Kashmir to the students of Gilgit-Baltistan so that they progress in the field of education, science, and technology.
On this occasion, leader of the delegation Ashraf Sada thanked the AJK president for taking a personal interest in providing facilities to the students of Gilgit-Baltistan in the educational institutions of Azad Kashmir.
