RAWALPINDI: An emergency meeting of prominent leaders and workers of the All-Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference held here today [Jan 6] strongly criticised Indian Premier Mrs Indira Gandhi’s statement that Occupied Kashmir’s “accession” to India was final and termed it as a “conspiracy” against the renewed efforts of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah towards creating goodwill between Pakistan and India.

The meeting, through a resolution, said that Mrs Gandhi’s statement, issued before a press conference yesterday, following the one held by Sheikh Abdullah after his release, clearly showed that the Indian Government was opposed to the creation of a suitable atmosphere for the solution of the Kashmir problem and that it desired to continue a position of friction and hostility in the subcontinent.

Refuting the Indian Premier’s claim that the Kashmir people had already decided about their future, the meeting termed it as a clear lie about a fact which was known to the whole world.

Expressing fears that Mrs Gandhi’s statement might be a forerunner to some new Indian reign of terror and show of force in Occupied Kashmir, the meeting warned the Indian rulers that the people of the state would continue their struggle launched in 1931 till they had achieved their right of self-determination.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2019