ISLAMABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry on Friday said that despite its jackboot tactics, India had miserably failed to suppress the Kashmiris’ spirit and their legitimate struggle for right to self-determination.

Addressing a press conference, President Chaudhry termed the August 5 move by India an atrocious assault on the Kashmiris’ ethno-cultural identity.

AJK ministers Chaudhry Akhlaq and Chaudhry Maqbool were also present on the occasion. The Azad Kashmir president said the Indian motive behind this move was to put an end to the dispute but it had miserably failed in its designs.

“Today the Kashmir issue has more resonance at the international level compared to what it had before August 5,” he said.

Says after August 5, the BJP intensified efforts to change the region’s demography

Highlighting the dangerous designs of India’s BJP government, Mr Chaudhry said the situation in the held territory had deteriorated after India revoked Article 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution.

“After August 5, the BJP has intensified its efforts to change the region’s demography,” he said, adding that since then the occupation authorities had issued more than 240,000 fake domiciles to non-Kashmiris.

Referring to the political and administrative machinations of the Modi government, he said the BJP wanted to install a Hindu chief minister in occupied Kashmir by changing the electoral map of the region.

Regarding the ruthless suppression of dissent in the valley, the AJK president said suppression of democratic dissent over the past three years had led to arbitrary arrests and detention of Kashmiri leaders and workers.

“A number of Kashmiris, including the top rank Hurriyat leaders, have been arrested and left to rot in jails away from their homeland,” he said.

Voicing his concern over the continued bloodshed and violence in India-held Kashmir, Barrister Chaudhry said there was a dire need to sensitise the international community about the early and amicable solution to the dispute.

He said he held a series of demonstrations within and outside the country including the United Kingdom and Brussels, to draw the attention of the world towards the serious situation in the occupied territory.

On moving the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over Kashmir, the president said: “Only a member country of the forum can raise the issue at the ICJ”.

“I request the government of Pakistan to move the ICJ for the release of Yasin Malik and the serioushuman rights violations being committed by the Indian forces in occupied Kashmir,” he added.

He said as the UN General Assembly meeting was approaching, all efforts would be taken to draw the attention of the international community to the Kashmir issue.

In response to a query, he said former prime minister Imran Khan had adopted a strong policy on Kashmir and “my request to the federal government is that it should also adopt a similar policy on the issue” .

“We wish Pakistan to be strong because a strong and stable Pakistan is the guarantor of Kashmir’s freedom,” the president said.

In response to another query, Barrister Chaudhry said there could be no compromise on the financial and executive affairs of Azad Kashmir.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2022