WASHINGTON: President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan has urged the international community to dissuade India from launching surgical strikes inside Pakistan as any such move would have disastrous consequences.

Mr Khan, who is in the US capital to highlight the Kashmir issue, told a gathering of Pakistani and Kashmiri communities in Washington that despite 70 years of continued oppression India had failed to suppress the will of the Kashmiri people.

“The people are angry, trapped in a very bad situation and yet they are protesting (against the Indian occupation) and these are peaceful civilian protesters, no terrorists,” he said.

Mr Khan, who was Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations before his election, said India was using the Sept 18 attack in Uri to hide the atrocities its forces had committed against the people of Kashmir.

He noted that India had blamed Pakistan hours after the attack, without even having the time to collect evidence. Mr Khan rejected the Indian claim that the attackers had weapons with Pakistani markings.

“If they were so smart as to break the impenetrable security parameters India has created (along the LoC), why would they come with such weapons,” he asked.

He said that if India used the Uri attack as an excuse to launch surgical strikes in Pakistan, it would be a huge mistake.

“Pakistan is ready to defend itself. The US and others should try to dissuade India because there would be a massive retaliation from Pakistan,” he warned. Mr Khan urged India to resume a dialogue process with Pakistan, saying that “even a semblance of negotiation is better than no negotiations”.

He rejected the Indian claim that pellet guns were non-lethal, pointing out that the main association of Kashmiri physicians had clearly said that the embedded pellets in the bodies of the victims were causing fatal lead poisoning and put pregnant women at serious risk. Further, the toxic lead deposits in children’s bodies would stunt their growth, he added.

The AJK president added that Kashmiris in held Kashmir were under siege in their own land. The use of sexual molestation and rape, as an instrument of terror, had been common in the occupied valley. Peaceful demonstrations were a crime, political meetings were banned and true representatives of Kashmiri people had been incarcerated.

He drew attention towards the prolonged curfews and mobile telephone and Internet blackouts in held Kashmir and mentioned that Indian occupation forces had been killing innocent citizens.

Mr Khan urged Kashmiri diaspora to use and pool all resources at their disposal to promote the Kashmir cause.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2016