MUZAFFARABAD: On a visit to the Azad Jammu and Kashmir capital to express solidarity with the people of India-held valley who have been under siege since Aug 5, Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan Alyani on Friday said the people who would harbour reservations about creation of Pakistan had got answers to their questions following the rise of fanaticism and fascism in India.

“There had been dictatorships and tyrannical regimes in many parts of the world, but hardly anyone would have seen in the recent history an entire population having been put under a lockdown [for more than a month],” he said of India-held Kashmir at a joint press conference with Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan at President’s House here.

The Balochistan CM along with a 10-member parliamentary delegation comprising two senators, three provincial ministers, two advisers and three MPAs from Balochistan arrived in the AJK capital to express solidarity and affection with the Kashmiris.

The visit, Mr Alyani said, was not a favour to the Kashmiris “but a duty as a Muslim, as a Pakistani and as a representative of Balochistan”.

He said Pakistan had categorically presented its stan­ce on Kashmir from both the diplomatic and military fronts. “Anyone thinking that Pakistan will or can budge even an inch from this stance is gravely mistaken... In fact, we will move ahead with this viewpoint.”

He said India claimed itself to be the largest democracy but its policies were negating this claim and nobody could deny the terror that it had unleashed in occupied Kashmir. “The new face of Hindu culture reflects the mindset of a particular party. Yet many people within India are unhappy and are keeping themselves away from it.”

It was not only Pakistan or those associated with Pakis­tan raising voice for the oppressed Kashmir, “but everyone who stood for humanity and human rights”, he added.

“People across the world have stood up for the rights, including the right to freedom, of the Kashmiri people. It’s a success that we had been trying to achieve since long amid constant attempts by India to frustrate it. It’s the result of the sacrifices of thousands of lives in occupied Kashmir,” he added.

He said the world must take decisions because there could not be two benchmarks.

Answering a question, he said India was misguided by a wrong perception that there was any sort of resentment in Balochistan. “When the whole of Balochistan can pour onto the streets to voice support for the Kashmiris, it’s an open message to the international community in general and India in particular,” he said.

Mr Alyani said the geographical position of Balochistan, which was spread over 44 per cent of the country’s total area, was different than all the other provinces, as it shared more than 25,000-km-long porous border with two countries — Iran and Afghanistan.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2019