Kashmir conflict is the major cause of strained relations between Pakistan and India and if not handled carefully it could lead to greater conflict between two nuclear armed nations of South Asia. This was stated by President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan in reply to a question while addressing a press conference at the Press Club of Brussels and Europe, an international media forum, here, today. He said apathy of international community towards peaceful resolution of this issue could further harm the peace of entire region, says a press release received here today from Brussels.
“This is our message to powerful community that silence and appeasement will not work in the case of Kashmir” said Sardar Masood Khan while terming culture of silence and appeasement damaging to human values. He said we look up to European Union for its role because of its long history of dealing with conflicts and consolidating into society based on values of peace and human rights.
Replying to a question on future of Kashmir the President said “Kashmiri youth has been brutalized and humiliated by the Indian forces of occupation. As a result now they only look for liberation from India and with the escalation of brutalities after the incident of Burhan Wani there is now an urgency to the situation which is highly volatile at the moment”. He further added “People of Kashmir remain the most important party in the conflict and future of Kashmir cannot be visualized without endorsing their aspirations”.
He added though there was a greater realization now that a peaceful solution of Kashmir issue was pivotal for the peace and security of the entire region but the international community was not paying attention to mobilize international institutions in this regard and apathy of international community towards peaceful resolution of this issue could further harm peace of the region.
Referring to need of assessing gravity of situation the president said that Human Rights Commission of UN had decided to send a fact finding mission to both sides of Kashmir which has been blocked by India whereas governments of Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir welcomed this mission. He added that such missions were necessary to bring out facts about human rights violations in Indian occupied Kashmir. He stressed for sending missions of International Red Cross and International Federation of Red Cross to look into principles of proportionality.
He said that Indian authorities were blocking news from Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir. As a result India was not being questioned on account of human rights violations which amounts to double standards. Though social media has been successfully used by young people to tell their stories but that remains their only way to communicate.
PREVIOUS NEXT
