JEDDAH, NOV 24 (DNA) – The AJK President Sardar Masood Khan has regretted that Kashmir despite being the oldest issue on the UN agenda remains unresolved. “Our brethren in occupied Kashmir have spent more than 100 days under curfew and media blackout, and the Indian forces have turned Kashmir into the world’s largest prison,” he added.Speaking at a paintings exhibition titled “Kashmir: Blood, Cries & Tears” and a seminar on Kashmir here on Sunday, he said that Kashmiri people were being punished for being Muslims and demanding their right to self-determination.
He said that the Kashmiri people were looking towards their Muslim brethren for support at this test of time, and the OIC’s support will go a long way in effectively highlighting the goal of Kashmiri people, and would serve as a hope and a source of strength. “The OIC should mount pressure on India to provide access to global media and independent human rights activists to occupied Kashmir so that they can independently verify the reports of violations of human rights and the use of force,” he added.
Speaking as the chief guest, the OIC Secretary General’s special envoy on Kashmir, Yousef Bin Mohamed Aldobeay said that the organization gives high importance to the peaceful struggle of Kashmiri people and their right to self-determination in accordance with the UN resolutions, and this seminar serves as fulfillment of the OIC’s responsibilities in this regard. “The OIC has always supported the Kashmiri people and Kashmir issue has been on the agenda of all its summits and foreign ministers’ meetings,” he said adding that the OIC had set up Kashmir contact group in 1994, which had held so many meetings to reiterate its support to the Kashmir issue, and now it has expressed its reservations about the situation of occupied Kashmir.
Genuine representatives of the Kashmiri people Syed Abdullah Gilani and Faiz Naqashbandi while speaking at the seminar, apprised the audience about the latest situation of occupied Kashmir and trampling of human rights there. They called upon the international community particularly the OIC to play their role for the restoration of right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people.
In his address, Pakistan’s permanent representative at the OIC, Rizwan Sheikh said that today, the whole Indian state machinery was busy in perpetrating state terrorism against defenseless and innocent people of occupied Kashmir.DNA
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