MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has said the Kashmiri people had linked their future with Pakistan even before its creation.

He was speaking as a chief guest at a seminar on “Kashmir, Pakistan and Pakistaniyat” held here at the Aiwan-i-Sadr on Friday under the auspices of the Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), an Islamabad-based think tank. The audience mostly comprised students of different universities and colleges.

Mr Khan made it clear that Kashmir had never been a part of India.

“That’s why India has deployed 880,000 troops in the held territory who are committing every act of savagery to prolong her occupation of Kashmir,” he said.

He maintained that the Kashmiri people had remained firm in their commitment to accede their state to Pakistan. “In fact they have written a chapter of sacrifices to materialise their commitment.”

He said a strong, stable and economically powerful Pakistan guaranteed freedom of Kashmiri people from Indian subjugation.

“We are determined not to leave any stone unturned to make Pakistan strong and stable in terms of defence and economy,” he said.

Addressing the seminar, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Zubair Mehmood Hayat said that Pakistan was incomplete without Kashmir, and similarly, Kashmir had no identity without Pakistan.

Pakistani people had common blood, sentimental and spiritual bonds with their Kashmiri brethren, he said.

Gen Hayat said the two-nation theory presented by father of the nation Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and other eld­ers remained valid till today because Hindus and Muslims were like riverbanks which could not meet each other.

He asserted that Pakistan and Pakistaniyat was not a new philosophy but it was the continuation of the two-nation theory and Kashmiris were its part.

“The very theory is the driving force behind the heroic struggle of Kashmiri people.”

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2019