AJK President for urgent strategy to prevent demographic change in IIOJK

Islamabad: President Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan on Tuesday called for chalking out an urgent strategy for preventing India from changing the demography of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

He was speaking at a webinar hosted by Strategic Vision Institute (SVI) on ‘Assessing Pakistan’s Kashmir Policy: A Medium to Long-term Strategy’.

President Khan said the situation in Occupied Kashmir was changing at a lightning pace since India unilaterally and illegally annexed the territory in August 2019 and the foremost challenge being confronted by the Kashmiris is that of demographic change due to the various steps taken by the Indian government.

“If we do not do anything immediately, … couple of years later whatsoever we will do will be too little, too late,” he said.

AJK president noted that the weakest part of Pakistani efforts on Kashmir was the political component. “Our political parties are not adequately interfacing with the rest of the world. Let us reach out to our interlocutors and urge them to call spade a spade,” he stressed.

President Khan said the Indian ‘genociders’ need to be held accountable for the crimes against the people of Kashmir.

He regretted that the world had given carte blanche to India by ignoring Indian atrocities in Kashmir and its non-implementation of the UN Resolutions. “They are looking at the Kashmir dispute through Delhi’s prism because of economic and strategic considerations,” he maintained and added that by doing so the world was underwriting the ongoing genocide in Kashmir. He urged Pakistani businesses to boycott Indian products.

Ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, speaking on this occasion, said that the Indian action of Aug 5, 2019, has exacerbated the conflict. About Pakistan’s options, he said, diplomatic efforts, no matter how brilliant, would be insufficient and something “more needs to be done”.

Lt General Masood Aslam (retd) suggested a whole of nation approach for supporting the Kashmiri struggle for the right of self-determination. He said the support extended to Kashmiris should be multifaceted including the material assistance and softer elements like communications.

The event was chaired by former defense minister Lt. General Naeem Khalid Lodhi (retd).