MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s (AJK) newly elected President Sardar Mohammad Masood Khan has asked India to stop repression in held Kashmir and hold talks with Pakistan and Kashmiri representatives to find a solution to the dispute.

“I have a message for India to immediately halt bloodshed and atrocities in the occupied territory. Though the existing and coming generations of Kashmiris will hardly forgive India for its crimes in the disputed region, I invite it to hold talks with Pakistan and the people of Jammu and Kashmir so as to find a peaceful solution to the lingering dispute,” he said while talking to journalists after having been sworn in as AJK president.

Earlier, Mr Khan was installed by AJK Supreme Court Chief Justice Mohammad Azam Khan as the eighth elected president of AJK since 1975 when the parliamentary form of government was launched in the region.

The swearing-in ceremony was attended, among others, by his predecessor Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob Khan, Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider, Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Yasin, federal ministers Chaudhry Barjees Tahir and Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and members of the AJK cabinet.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2016