MUZAFFARABAD:
Sardar Masood Khan, president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), has said that after reluctantly accepting independence from Pakistan, India adopted a secular doctrine, a disingenuous attempt to hide prevailing Hindu nationalism under the pretext of secularism.
He made these remarks while speaking at two separate web conferences organized by the Institute of Policy Studies on the topic “India: Past, Present and Future: Insights from the Muslim World”; and by the Pakistani High Commission in the United Kingdom on the topic “Seeking justice for victims of sexual violence and physical torture and Kashmiri widows”.
Speaking at the IPS session, which was attended by prominent international experts from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Nigeria, the president said that Hindu fascists romanticize an imaginary state of “Akhand Baharat” which claim to have existed before the arrival of Muslim rulers to the subcontinent. This notion, he said, is not only not supported by history, it is also counterintuitive.
Referring to the false secularism adopted by India, the AJK president said that over the decades, this glue of secularism has been peeling away and the true face of India’s political masters has been exposed. “Not long after independence, on October 27, 1947, India began working on its imperialist agenda and invaded the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Driven by its extremist Hindu policy, India has continued this agenda throughout over the years,” he said.
Masood Khan said lawmakers and leaders of the BJP, RSS and their affiliates have publicly stated that they would eliminate Muslims from India. This, he said, has caught the attention of Hindu fanatics across India, which has consequently impacted the broader political landscape of the neighboring country.
This BJP-RSS nexus has fought three wars in the region; one against its minorities within its own borders, the second against Kashmiris in occupied Kashmir and the third against all its neighboring countries. “Considering Pakistan as enemy number one, they have threatened to wipe Pakistan off the face of the earth by using nuclear weapons,” he reported.
The AJK president said India’s ambition to become a colonial and imperial power in the region has led it to use the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh to sabotage the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It has also formed a four-member alliance, QUAD, comprising India, the United States, Japan and Australia, to oppose the BRI and especially the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
“India is the biggest barrier to progress in the region. SAARC has been fighting for decades and that too because India has opposed economic integration because it wants to establish its hegemony in South Asia,” the president said.
‘Existing tensions emerge in new dispute between China and India’
Talking about the situation in IOJ&K, he said that India is practicing the policy of lebensraum by reoccupying the State of Jammu and Kashmir, bifurcating it and now putting it under the direct rule of Delhi. He compared the new domicile rules introduced in the occupied valley with the policy pursued by Nazi Germany against the Jews, based initially on economic strangulation, followed by demonization and marginalization and finally physical extermination.
The President informed that political leaders have been imprisoned in IOJ&K and youth are being killed and tortured in jails across occupied Kashmir and northern India. He added that 13,000 Kashmiri children have been kidnapped and held in prisons where they are subjected to torture and brainwashing. Bipin Rawat, India’s Chief of Defense Staff, has said that these children (some as young as 10) are more dangerous than a pellet gun because they raise the slogan of Azadi (freedom) and self-determination, he said.
The AJK president said members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) should start a boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against India, while the business sector of these countries should be dissuaded from investing in India as are committing human rights violations against Kashmiris. and Muslims of India.
“Start by banning the import of non-halal meat to OIC countries and forming a Kashmir Humanitarian Fund with the help of the Islamic Development Bank and the Islamic Solidarity Fund.”
He also suggested that an international civil society movement be mobilized to delegitimize Hindutva and campaign to declare the RSS a terrorist organization. “The largest and best trained terrorist organization in the world is the RSS. “They have openly stated that they will attack Muslims not only in South Asia but all over the world,” he added.
Appreciating the supportive role of the OIC, Masood Khan appealed to the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council to raise their voice against Kashmir and denounce the egregious human rights violations taking place in IOJ&K.
Speaking at the web conference organized by the Pakistan High Commission, the President appealed to powerful nations to take moral and legal decisions to bring India to justice and help dismantle this torture machine in IOJ&K. “Silence is a crime when this type of torture is openly practiced anywhere in the world,” he said.
He added that 25,000 Hindus across India have received homes from IOJ&K; and just as Indian Muslims have become second class citizens, Kashmiris have to run from pillar to post just to prove that they are subjects of the State. “If we do not stop this now, IOJ&K will not be a recognizable entity as it is today. In the next few years, two million Hindus will arrive,” he stated.
The AJK president asserted that India’s non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council will lead to three setbacks in the Council. First, it will try to remove the agenda from the UN Security Council calendar; secondly, they would strive to prevent us from holding informal meetings on Kashmir; and thirdly, they will jeopardize the financing of the UNMOGIP mandate. “As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, the United Kingdom can stop this and create balance in the UN Security Council,” the president said as he addressed his audience.
He urged the British public and its civil society to lead the letter writing and awareness campaign on Kashmir at the international level.
He also thanked MP Steve Baker for his active and vocal role in raising his voice for the people of Kashmir by writing a letter. He urged him to use his influence at 10 Downing Street and the FCO to mobilize the UK towards the defense of Kashmir in both the British Parliament and the United Nations Security Council.
The web conference organized by Pakistan High Commission in London was attended by Pakistan High Commissioner to UK Nafees Zakaria, MP Afzal Khan, MP Naz Shah, MP Steve Baker, MP Tony Lloyd, MP Imran Hussain, MP Khalid Mahmood and Lord Qurban. Hussain, Councilor Aasim Rashid, Mr. Muzammil Ayub Thakur, President JKSDMI Raja Najabat Hussain, President Tahreek-e-Kashmir UK Fahim Kiyani, Dr. Nazir GIllani, Syed Ali Raza, Shaista Safi and other prominent members of the civil society.
