British lawmakers asked to raise voice for Kashmiris

• President Masood rejects bilateral talks, suggests political, diplomatic struggle to liberate Kashmir

Azad Jammu Kashmir President Masood Khan has said that the Kashmiri people have high expectations from the newly-elected members of the British parliament to raise their voice for the realisation of their right to self-determination, promised by the United Nations.

Speaking at a function here at Bradford, he said that the clout of the Kashmiri and Pakistani communities in the UK has increased and he lauded their efforts to inform the British lawmakers and public opinion of the killings and massive human rights violations in the Indian-held Kashmir.

He congratulated the 12 British Parliament members of Kashmiri and Pakistani extraction over their election in the recent elections. He particularly thanked the members of the House of Commons who had held a debate in January this year at which they expressed their support for the right to self-determination, called for activation of the UN’s role in resolving Kashmir.

The Kashmiri president said that the news and social media were reporting Indian atrocities but many governments in the West were hesitant to act because of their trade and economic interests tied with India. He called on them not to look the other way when India, in violation of international law, kills and imprisons Kashmiris with impunity in IHK and across the Line of Control.

He said that the Kashmir issue could not be resolved through military means. “It is time to accelerate political and diplomatic struggle to liberate Kashmir and this track is stronger than India’s brutal military campaign and terrorism,” he said. “Kashmiris will win and prevail no matter what because they were championing a just cause and they had rejected the illegal occupation,” he said.

He said that if India has failed to annex Kashmir through oppression in the past 70 years, it won’t be able to do so now. Paying tribute to Kashmiri youth, he said that Kashmir was ringing with the slogans of freedom – freedom from Indian captivity and freedom from denials of all political rights. These voices would not be silenced, he said.

President Masood said that the Kashmir was an international issue; its resolution should not be left to the manipulation of India through the farce of ‘bilateral’ talks which have not produced any results. He thanked Pakistan and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation for their support and underlined that Kashmiris’ resolve had become stronger than ever to get their inalienable right to self-determination.