KARACHI: What is happening in India-occupied Kashmir defies all norms, human rights charter, Geneva conventions and the rules of war, said Azad Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan in his lecture titled ‘Kashmir — perceptions and reality’ at the University of Karachi on Friday.

He said India was using naked coercion and brute force, economic banishment, creating political allies and parties, painting Kashmiris and Pakistanis as militants and terrorists and threatening to isolate Pakistan internationally.

But despite all these machinations, India has no success in winning the hearts and minds of Kashmiris and annexing the state of Kashmir.

“The hearts of Kashmiris beat with Pakistan,” he stated in an auditorium filled with faculty members and students from various departments of the KU.

The people of Jammu and Kashmir have made it clear that they would secure their right to self-determination and freedom under all circumstances, he said.

Opining that the ideology behind the creation of Pakistan still stands true, he said: “Despite the separation of Bangladesh, the two-nation theory still exists.”

‘It is not an integral part of India, it will never become so’

The state of Pakistan is incomplete even today because part of Kashmir is occupied by India, Mr Khan said.

Harking back to the painful and bloodied partition, Mr Khan shared some quick points, including the migration of 15 million people who crossed the border to enter Pakistan, one million were killed, most of whom were Muslims.

Contextualising the genocide that took place in Kashmir in 1947 when over 200,000 Muslims were killed by the maharaja of Kashmir’s army, he said: “People tend to forget with the passage of time. We need to think why are the people in Jammu and Kashmir asking for the right to self-determination?”

“Kashmiris are aliens in their homeland. They are being killed, maimed, and dishonoured in their own homeland,” he said.

Hinting at the changing demographics in Indian-occupied Kashmir, he said that in 1947, 63 per cent population of Jammu was Muslim, now it’s only 33pc.

Hindus were settled in the valley, non-Kashmiris were moved there to change the demographics and there has been ongoing ethnic cleansing of local Kashmiris — so much along the lines of illegal settlements in Palestine, he added.

“The tragedy here is that the international community looks the other way when it comes to Jammu and Kashmir. It’s a blind spot for the international community,” he said, alleging that major powers did not take action and instead safeguarded Indian interests.

Dispelling the Indian myth that ‘Kashmir is an integral part of India’, the Azad Kashmir president said, “Kashmir is not an integral part of India and Kashmir will never become part of India.”

Dispelling the notion of terrorism in Kashmir, he said: “In fact, it is India which sponsors terrorism there; 700,000 India troops are there with latest weapons.”

On the myth of ‘infiltration from Pakistan’, he called it a big lie.

“The Line of Control has two fences, land mines, electronic surveillance, thermal imaging. It’s impossible to cross.

“300 Kashmiris have been left completely blind by the pellets used by Indian forces. The seriously injured are numbered around 20,000. This is terrorism.

“Who is a terrorist? An unarmed mother? A boy trying to protect his unarmed mother using a stick or stone? 10,000 Indian army troops killing Kashmiris with the latest weapons?” he questioned a rapt audience.

“The people of Kashmir are resisting through words,” he said, adding that people shouldn’t believe the false propaganda and the handlers sitting in New Delhi.

“People say Kashmir is a forgotten issue and there is Kashmir fatigue, but it is not so. The issue can’t be forgotten. It’s a continuous struggle,” he added.

On the oft repeated line by India that all of Pakistan is not behind Kashmir, he said that in his meetings with leaders and public all over Pakistan, the whole of the country is supporting the cause of Kashmir.

“Pakistan is incomplete without Jammu and Kashmir, and Jammu and Kashmir is nothing with Pakistan,” he said. “If there was no Azad Kashmir, the issue of J&K would have been dead. The issue of Junagarh and Hyderabad disappeared because there was no Azad Junagarh or Azad Hyderabad.

“There was a need to go back to the UN and powerful sovereign parliaments of the world and reinvigorate the issue,” Mr Khan said.

“We should use social media to negate the false propaganda and broadcast the right image and facts of the Kashmir struggle. We must reach out to civil society internationally,” he said.

Currently, he said the three priorities of Azad Kashmir government included accelerating the pace of Kashmir struggle; bring good governance, and going for economic development — with tourism promotion as a major feature.

On the occasion, KU Vice Chancellor Dr Ajmal Khan said there was a need to rethink Pakistan’s strategy on Kashmir struggle and identify what went wrong.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2017