MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan on Wednesday condemned the designation by the United States of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin as a “global terrorist,” terming it a serious misjudgement and gross injustice to the Kashmiris fighting for right to self-determination.

“Indian occupation forces in Jammu and Kashmir should have been branded with that epithet instead,” he said, in a statement issued a day earlier. Mr Khan said that 70 years were a long period for the kind of ordeal that the Kashmiris had been subjected to by the Indian occupation forces.

“Not a year has passed by without massive atrocities and human rights violations against the Kashmiri people, which have been extensively recorded by the US State Department as well as reputed and independent international human rights organisations,” he maintained.

“In fact, Indian troops have systematically practiced state terrorism in occupied Kashmir.”

The AJK president maintained that the allegations against Hizbul Mujahideen were based on information fed by India, which wanted to perpetuate its illegal occupation of Kashmir.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2017