MUZAFFARABAD:
Sardar Masood Khan, President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), has said that after reluctantly accepting Pakistan’s independence, India adopted a secular doctrine, a disingenuous attempt to hide widespread Hindu nationalism under the guise of secularism.
He made these remarks while addressing two separate web conferences organized by the Institute of Policy Studies on the topic “India: Past, Present & Future: Perceptions of the Muslim World”; and by the Pakistan High Commission UK on the topic “Seeking Justice for Kashmiri Victims of Sexual Violence and Physical Torture, and Widows”.
Speaking at the IPS session – attended by leading international experts from the US, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Nigeria – the President said that Hindu-fascists romanticize an imaginary state of “Akhand Baharat” that they claim to have existed before the arrival of Muslim rulers in the subcontinent. This notion, he said, is not only unsupported by history, it is also counterintuitive.
Referring to the false secularism adopted by India, the AJK President said that over the decades, this glue of secularism has gone away and the real face of India’s political masters has been exposed. “Not long after independence, on October 27, 1947, India started working on its imperialist agenda and invaded Jammu and Kashmir state. Driven by its Hindu-extremist policy, India has continued this agenda over the years,” he said.
Masood Khan said that legislators and the leadership of BJP, RSS and their affiliates have publicly declared that they would do away with Muslims from within India. This, he said, has caught the attention of Hindu zealots from across India, affecting the larger political landscape in the neighboring country.
This BJP-RSS nexus has waged three wars in the region; one against its minorities within its own borders, the second against Kashmir in the Occupied Territory of Kashmir and the third against all its neighboring countries. “Considering Pakistan as enemy number one, they have threatened to wipe Pakistan off the face of the earth using nuclear weapons,” he informed.
The AJK President said that India’s ambition to become a colonial and imperialist power in the region has led it to use the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh to sabotage the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It has also formed a four-member alliance QUAD – consisting of India, the US, Japan and Australia – to oppose the BRI and especially the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
“India is the biggest barrier to progress in the region. SAARC has been struggling for decades and that too because India has stood in the way of economic integration as it wants to establish its hegemony in South Asia,” the President said.
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Talking about the situation in IOJ&K, he said that India is practicing the lebensraum policy by re-occupying the state of Jammu and Kashmir, dividing it and now bringing it under the direct rule of Delhi. He compared the new domicile rules introduced in the occupied valley to the policy pursued by Nazi Germany against the Jews, which was based first on economic strangulation, followed by demonization and marginalization, and finally physical extermination.
The President pointed out that political leaders of IOJ&K have been jailed, the youth are being killed and tortured in jails all over Occupied Kashmir and North India. He added that 13,000 Kashmiri boys have been abducted and kept in prison houses where they are subjected to torture and brainwashing. Bipin Rawat, India’s defense chief, has said that these boys (some as young as 10) are more dangerous than a pellet-firing shotgun because they raise the slogan of Azadi (freedom) and self-determination, he said.
The AJK president said that members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) should start a boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against India, while the corporate sector of these countries should be discouraged from investing in India as they commit human rights violations against Kashmiris. and Muslims in India.
“Start banning the import of non-halal meat to OIC countries and the formation of a Kashmir Humanitarian Fund with the help of the Islamic Development Bank and Islamic Solidarity Fund.”
He also suggested that an international civil society movement be mobilized to delegitimize Hindutva and campaign to declare the RSS a terrorist organisation. “The biggest and most trained terrorist organization in the world is RSS. They have openly declared to attack Muslims not only in South Asia but all over the world,” he added.
Appreciating the supportive role of the OIC, Masood Khan appealed to the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council to raise their voice against Kashmir and call out the serious human rights violations taking place in IOJ&K.
Speaking at the web conference held by the Pakistan High Commission, the President appealed to powerful nations to make moral and legal choices to bring India to justice and help dismantle this torture machine in the IOJ&K. “Silence is a crime when such torture is openly taking place in any part of the world,” he said.
He added that 25,000 Hindus from all over India have been domiciled with IOJ&K; and in the same way that Muslim Indians have become second-class citizens, Kashmiris have to run from pillar to post just to prove that they are state subjects. “If we don’t stop this now, the IOJ&K will not be a recognizable entity as it is today. Two million Hindus will be brought in over the coming years,” he said.
The AJK President said that India’s non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council will lead to three setbacks in the Council. First, it will attempt to erase the agenda from the UNSC calendar; secondly, they would make efforts to prevent us from holding informal meetings on Kashmir; and third, they will jeopardize the funding of UNMOGIP’s mandate. “As a permanent member of the UNSC, Britain can stop this and bring balance to the UNSC,” the president said while addressing his audience.
He called on the British citizenry and its civil society to lead the letter writing and awareness campaign on Kashmir in the international arena.
He also thanked MP Steve Baker for his active and vocal role in raising his voice for the people of Kashmir by writing a letter. He urged him to use his influence with 10 Downing Street and the FCO to mobilize Britain against Kashmir advocacy in both the British Parliament and the UNSC.
The web conference held by Pakistan High Commission in London was attended by Pakistan High Commissioner to UK Nafees Zakaria, MP Afzal Khan, MP Naz Shah, MP Steve Baker, MP Tony Lloyd, MP, Imran Hussain, MP Khalid Mahmood, Lord Qurban Hussain, Councilor Aasim Rashid, Mr. Muzammil Ayub Thakur, Chairman JKSDMI Raja Najabat Hussain, President Tahreek-e-Kashmir UK Fahim Kiyani, Dr Nazir GIllani, Syed Ali Raza, Shaista Safi and other leading members of civil society.
