LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ameerul Azim and Mushaal Hussein Mullick, the wife of detained Kashmiri leader Yasim Malik, have demanded Pakistan should cut off all diplomatic ties with India and nullify the Simla Agreement to show solidarity with the Kashmir cause.

Addressing a joint conference at Mansoora on Monday, both leaders appealed to the media and the nation to play an active role to highlight the genocide of Kashmiris by Indian forces in the valley.

“The government has failed to meet the nation’s expectation. They [rulers] are only paying lip service to the Kashmir cause,” Mr Azim said.

He demanded the government should take the case of illegally detained Kashmiri leaders Yasin Malik, Syed Ali Gilani, Asia Andrabi and others to International Court of Justice and other world forums to ensure their release.

He also demanded the international rights groups should arrange a meeting between Yasin Malik and his daughter, which the Indian government had been denying them, keeping the Hurriyat leader in death cell in a fake case for more than a year and a half.

Ms Mullick appealed to the political parties to shun their mutual differences for some time and show unity on the Kashmir cause.

“The Kashmir is the only important issue of the South Asia and Pakistan’s government, political parties and nation should utilise their energies to expose the Indian crimes against humanity at international level,” she said.

She stressed the need for adoption of a consistent national Kashmir policy by Pakistan. She expressed the hope that India could no more enslave the Kashmiri people and the sun of freedom would soon rise in the occupied area.

Earlier, Ms Mullik, with her mother and daughter, met the JI leadership and offered fateha for the deceased party leader Hafiz Salman Butt.

Samia Raheel Qazi and Qaisar Sharif were also present.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2021