Days ahead of the Heart of Asia Conference scheduled to be held in Amritsar, India, next week, Azad Jammu & Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan has warned Pakistani government and Kashmiri people “not to unilaterally budge” from their principled stance on Kashmir which could prove to be “detrimental and premature move”.
Pakistan has conveyed to India that Prime Minister’s Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz will be attending the Heart of Asia (HoA) Conference on December 3 and 4. India on the other hand remained non-committal about holding talks with Sartaj Aziz at the HoA moot. The conference will be addressed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, besides participation of over 40 countries.
“Unilateral departure from our principled stance on Kashmir would be premature and detrimental to the cause of Kashmir. Engagement and reciprocity should be genuine exercises. Next time we talk to India over Kashmir, we must demand comprehensive dialogue on all aspects of the Jammu & Kashmir dispute,” said President Masood Khan in an exclusive interview with Pakistan Today. Masood Khan is a veteran diplomat with a unique experience of serving in India, China and UN.
“And it should be a stand-alone dialogue. At the same time, we should not reduce our efforts in the multilateral domain which includes the United Nations and powerful capitals. The outreach started recently with India must be continued however,” said the AJK president.
“India is responsible for the repression and escalation of violence in the Occupied Kashmir and across the Working Boundary and the Line of Control (LoC). So India alone can defuse the humanitarian crisis as hundreds of innocent Kashmiris have been killed, thousands of young and old, women and children have been injured, blinded and maimed. Out of those injured, per the latest data, 17000 Kashmiris have been critically injured. So India has to stop killing Kashmiris,” he added.
He said, ‘This needs to be pointed out that there is a humanitarian crisis but there is no humanitarian relief and the international community has not stepped forward to establish a humanitarian corridor.
“So Kashmiris are on their own. The entire territory of Kashmir has been cordoned off by India including Ladakh, Jammu and Valley of Kashmir and 700,000 well-equipped troops are deployed in this territory and they are killing people mercilessly with impunity in pursuance of their black laws”.