Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) leadership on Wednesday sharply criticised recent remarks by Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who extended an invitation to AJK’s residents to join India.

AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq advised Indian leaders to abandon their “ridiculous rhetoric” and instead allow the residents of the disputed region to determine their future on their own terms.

Speaking at an election rally in Ramban last weekend, Singh had urged the residents of AJK to join India, claiming they were considered “our own,” unlike in Pakistan, where they were treated as “foreigners.”

The Hindustan Times reported that the Indian minister was referring to a statement made by Additional Attorney General (AAG) Munawar Iqbal Duggal, who claimed AJK was a foreign territory.

According to Aaj News, Duggal had argued that “Azad Kashmir has its own constitution and judicial system, and Pakistani court decisions are treated as foreign judgments there.”

In a response on Wednesday, the AJK premier said: “It requires an extraordinary level of shameless audacity to make such statements, and Indian politicians, particularly those affiliated with the Hindu fanatic BJP, are adept at it, despite their hands being fully stained with the blood of innocent Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC).”

Haq asserted that India had brazenly deprived the Kashmiri people of their fundamental right to self-determination and its occupation forces were involved in the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.

He highlighted grave human rights abuses committed by Indian forces, including mass rapes, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances, dating back to 1947, but especially since 1989.

“The discovery of over 8,000 unnamed mass graves in the occupied Valley is a testament to the brutality inflicted upon Kashmiris by Indian occupation forces,” he added.

The AJK premier maintained that the Indian government had turned occupied Kashmir into an open prison, where citizens were forced to live in fear, stripped of their basic human rights and identity.

Haq also criticised India’s aggression along the LoC in AJK, which, he said, had resulted in the deaths of countless civilians, alongside significant material losses.

“How can the people on this side forget the death and destruction caused by unprovoked and relentless shelling by Indian troops [prior to the ceasefire]? How can they forget the brutal murder of innocent people grazing cattle, cutting fodder, or plucking medicinal plants along the LoC?” he asked.

“Instead of worrying about Azad Jammu and Kashmir and issuing ridiculous statements about it, Mr Singh and his ilk should feel remorse and shame for their ghastly actions in Kashmir and focus on ending the illegal occupation of the region,” PM Haq said.

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He further called on the Indian government to respect the will of the Kashmiri people, withdraw its occupation forces from the territory, and allow Kashmiris to determine their political future in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions.

The AJK premier noted that while the Indian Army was viewed as a murderous force by Kashmiris on both sides of the LoC, the Pakistan Army had always acted as a protector of the people.

He also urged the international community to hold India accountable for its heinous and illegal actions and facilitate the UN-sponsored plebiscite in the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir.