MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has warned that if India dared to attack the liberated territory it would face valiant people filled with the spirit of martyrdom.

“An attack on Azad Kashmir is an attack on Pakistan’s very existence,” he said, urging 130 million Pakistani youth to rise up in support of their Kashmiri brothers and sisters to create awareness about Kashmir struggle and expose India through all available mediums of communication.

The AJK president was speaking as the chief guest at the concluding session of a one-day volunteer peace conference organised by Kashmir Youth Alliance here on Wednesday.

The conference was also attended by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan, former AJK prime minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) leader and chairman of AJK Public Accounts Committee Abdul Rashid Turabi, Dr Mujahid Gilani and others.

While describing the youth as the future of the country, Mr Khan said the struggle to counter Indian threats and liberate Kashmir was the foremost obligation of the youth.

“India wants not just to prolong its occupation of (occupied) Kashmir and suppress the voice of Kashmiri people but also eliminate Pakistan as well as the Muslims living in India,” he said, warning that if India succeeded in its designs in Kashmir, survival of Pakistan as well as the Muslims of South Asia would be at stake.

He recollected that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had publicly stated that he would use nuclear bombs against Pakistan while his minister Rajnath Singh and Army Chief Gen M.M. Naravane were threatening to invade AJK.

“Indian Army has always taken up arms against defenceless people but it lacks the skills and capability to fight a regular professional army,” he maintained.

The AJK president said that neither Pakistan nor the Kashmiri people but the man occupying the office of prime minister in New Delhi was India’s real enemy.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2020