MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Mas­ood Khan has advised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to adopt the course of dialogue to resolve the long outstanding Kashmir conflict, instead of ignoring the situation on the ground.

“The Kashmir conflict and the struggle of Kashmiri people for the attainment of their fundamental right to self-determination are a historical reality, which the Indian rulers cannot conceal through their fraudulent stance and means,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

While condemning an attempt by Mr Modi in his address to the Maldives parliament to link the Kashmir liberation struggle to terrorism, the AJK president pointed out that the people of Kashmir had been resisting the Indian occupation forces since October 27, 1947, the day they landed in the territory to illegally occupy it.

He criticised the detention of liberation leader Musarrat Alam Butt by an Indian intelligence agency.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2019