-
Says no room for complacency as India seeking to project consequences of ‘nuclear war’ in region
ISLAMABAD – President of Azad Jammu & Kashmir Masood Khan Sunday warned governments of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir against possible attack from India, saying that everyone must be prepared as there was no room for complacency.
In an exclusive interview with DiploMag, Masood Khan said that following the martyrdom of Riyaz Naikoo, Kashmiris have been defying lockdown and there have been protests for past four, five days.
He said Kashmiris are coming out in large numbers and funerals in absentia are taking place as the occupant regime did not release the bodies of slain youth to their families, fearing mass funerals and mass protests despite mass militarization of the area.
He said the Indians came up with a new strategy to shift international focus from Kashmir. Indian National Security Advisor after meetings with Indian forces’ chief and other officials, again put blame on Pakistan alleging that Pakistan was creating new outfits and ‘launch-pads’ in Azad Kashmir were being used for infiltration.
“So I fear that India is preparing for another false flag operation in Occupied Kashmir. They may also intensify proxy war in different parts of Pakistan. Their media is already claiming that India would wreak vengeance in different parts of Pakistan following Hundwara incident. We also should not rule-out a direct attack from India on Pakistan or Azad Kashmir to give this erroneous impression to the rest of the world that the whole turbulence in Jammu and Kashmir is not about the people’s wish and rather it’s about a potential nuclear war between India and Pakistan to neutralize the world on Kashmir issue as a nuclear blackmail. India may also accelerate hybrid warfare against Pakistan,” warned Masood Khan.
Masood Khan also equated New Domicile Laws introduced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in Indian Occupied Kashmir to Nuremberg Race Laws of Hitler’s Nazi Germany in 1930s, saying that India wants to turn Kashmiris second-rate citizens in their own territory, aliens in their own society and stateless in their own state as part of a bigger genocide plan.
“I compare these rules to Nuremberg race laws of Hitler’s Nazi Germany because at that time in 1930s Nazi Germany had reduced Jews to second rate citizens in their own country and snatched German identity from Jews. Finally the Nazis forces Jews to migrate and flee their own country. India’s fascist regime wants to replicate the same model in Kashmir too.”
AJK President said that in the dead of night, India has introduced new domicile rules designed to turn Kashmiris a minority in their own state.
“Under the new illegal law, ordinary Hindus if they have ever lived in Kashmir for 15 years, or studies in Kashmir for seven years or someone has appeared in 10th or 12th class examinations, they qualify to have domicile of Kashmir. This is very sinister move. India by this law wants to pave the way to issue residence permits to ex-army officials, ex-civil servants, their families and children, and this number would be in hundreds of thousands. Since 1947, people from mainland India have lived in Kashmir a part of job. This includes occupation forces and civil servants part of occupation administration,” he said.
Khan said that hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from Bihar, Bengal, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Delhi and Punjab who worked in IOJK have also been allowed Kashmir domiciles.
“Third category to get domiciles is so-called Hindu refugees who migrated to IoK from Punjab or from Azad Kashmir in 1947. Though these refugees had gone to East Punjab but Indians deliberately pushed them to Occupied Jammu & Kashmir. So that at some point they could change the demographic composition of the territory,” he said.
Masood Khan said that India is actually trying to take away Kashmiris land, their jobs, and their seats in universities to turn Kashmiris homeless in their own homeland, stateless in their own state, and aliens in their own habitat. Noting the lackluster world response to Indian move, Khan said it’s a pity that only the Organisation of Islamic Countries has condemned these illegal rules.
“The situation today in IOJK is dark, dismal and teary. It’s a wasteland as a matter of fact. It’s most brutalized region on the planet earth right now. IOJK is under double-lockdown today as the rest of the world is under one lockdown – COVID-19. Coronavirus lockdown is designed to save lives but the siege in Kashmir laid since August 5 last year is designed to kill Kashmiris. India is pursuing a genocide in Kashmir,” he added.
He deplored the fact that India has, of late, started killing young people.
“Only in past one month, India has killed 40 young Kashmiris. Indian forces are taking advantage of Coronavirus lockdown as the world is focused on fighting the disease. The world needs to intervene and act before it’s too late,” he observed.
Khan said that India believes that it can remove Kashmir from the global agenda in guise of lockdown due to Coronavirus but it was time for AJK government and Pakistan to keep the issue alive and engage extensively with the international audience to keep the issue a part of global agenda.
“For this we have to reach out to the parliamentarians, international media, think-tanks, human rights organisations, civil society and scholars and United Nations Security Council and project what’s happening in Indian Occupied Kashmir. The UNSC must have intervened when India had introduced illegal domicile rules in violation of UNSC resolutions on Kashmir. India has also violated the fourth Geneva Convention, particularly its article 49. India also violated ICC statute. What India has done in Kashmir for past two month would be characterized as war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and genocide,” observed Masood Khan who also served as Pakistan’s senior diplomat.
Eulogising the efforts of Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Foreign Office for engaging the world on Kashmir issue, Masood Khan said a lot need to be done more. He also lauded the twitter diplomacy of Prime Minister Imran Khan on Kashmir issue but urged for a more aggressive posture.
“We must adapt more aggressive, frequent and diverse outreach with world and the UN. We should also use Kashmiri and Pakistani diaspora community in this regard. We have ten million people of Kashmiri or Pakistani extraction spread all over the world. They have turned this Kashmir issue into an international movement,” he said.
“This is a Vietnam moment for us. We should either use it or lose it. And the sky is the limit if we really are determined to pursue the cause of Kashmir strongly and robustly”.
Masood Khan also refuted India’s claim that Kashmir is a bilateral issue between Pakistan and India.
“This is a lie because Simla agreement didn’t say that Kashmir is a bilateral issue. It also did not bilateralise the issue. In any case if a bilateral agreement is not working between the two countries, the United Nations article 103 overwrites any bilateral agreement. So legally speaking, there is no locus standi for bilateralisation of the Kashmir issue. India also is not sincere to its commitment of bilateralism as far as Kashmir is concerned”.
Elabourating, Masood Khan said that when India took illegal steps of unilateral annexation of Jammu and Kashmir, it didn’t ask or consult Pakistan because it was according to them was a bilateral issue.
“Rather, India started saying that it’s an internal matter. We have not violated any of these bilateral agreements. Even since 1972, we have been engaging India at the bilateral level in sincerity and good faith. But Indians were dishonest about this bilateral approach. If we withdraw from international agreements, the international community would start blaming us”.
Masood Khan said that Pakistan’s biggest mistake was not Simla, Lahore or Tashkent agreements.
“Our biggest blunder was to invest our times, energies and political will in these bilateral talks as India was never sincere in negotiating the Kashmir issue with Pakistan. They were buying time to consolidate their occupation of the territory. They thought that the world would forget Kashmir,” Masood Khan concluded.
