MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 12: AJK Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan on Sunday said the armed struggle in the Indian-held Kashmir was an ‘‘organised resistance movement’’ which the Kashmiri people had been compelled to launch in the wake of New Delhi’s perpetual denial of their basic rights.

“If it is not a resistance movement then why India has deployed more than 800,000 military and paramilitary troops in the occupied territory,” he said in his address at the annual prize distribution ceremony of the Palandari Cadet College in the southern Sudhnoti district.

“Liberation of Kashmir and its accession to Pakistan is part of our faith and Allah willing we will soon achieve this goal,” he said, recalling that the people of Kashmir had already aligned themselves with Pakistan even before its creation.

“Pakistan runs in our veins like blood and it is a primary responsibility of every Kashmiri to defend this fort of Islam,” he said.

Sardar Attique urged the management of the cadet college to inculcate the ideology of Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan in the cadets, apart from other good things, so that they could utilise their energies to materialise the thought.

He paid rich tributes to the Kashmiri mujahideen and said that with limited resources they had engaged more than 800,000 Indian troops in the held Kashmir and were constantly inflicting huge losses on them.

“India must realise that it cannot keep the Kashmiri people with her by force and coercion,” he said.

He pointed out that for the past 16 years he had been raising the slogan “long live the Pakistan army” at every political function only to send a clear message to the enemy that 3 million population of the AJK was on the back of 40,000 Pakistani troops deployed in this region.

He appreciated the standard and performance of the cadet college over a short span of time, but underlined the need of opening more sections, particularly those related to science and technology.

The premier pledged that the government would leave no stone unturned to make it an exemplary educational institution.

He pointed out with pride that the literacy rate in the AJK was around 65 per cent, which was better than the four federating units of Pakistan, but added that it should be further enhanced with improvement in the quality of education.

The government, he declared, would provide stipends to bright students willing to pursue higher education within the country or abroad.