Pakistan administered Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan on Monday said the turbulent state of Jammu and Kashmir was in dire need of lingua franca for peace, alongside the preservation of its linguistic and cultural heritage.
Speaking at the inaugural session of Third Kashmir International Conference on Linguistics under the aegis of the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (UAJK), he maintained that India’s military and armed adventures could neither break the resolve of Kashmiris nor their commitment to an amiable and peaceful resolution of the dispute through the language of peace, harmony and connectivity.
“India must avoid the language of confrontation, aggression and suppression and must come to the table of dialogue, and the international community should also explore the language of peace to help resolve this issue according to the aspirations of the people of Kashmir,” he said.
The inaugural session, attended by a large number of academicians, researchers, scholars, civil society activists and students from different parts of the divided state of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan and some foreign countries at a local hotel, was also addressed by UAJK Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Kaleem Abbasi and Dean Faculty of Arts Prof Dr Ayesha Sohail.
According to Dr Sohail, also the chief organiser of the event, the major theme of the two-day biennial interdisciplinary conference was “Linguistic Diversity and Cultural Preservation in South Asia. The conference theme, she said, was well-timed initiative because languages were undergoing drastic changes, particularly the undocumented ones being overshadowed by the more prestigious and well-documented ones. “This conclave has brought together scholars and researchers of international repute for deliberations on a subject that warrants serious attention in the wake of globalisation,” she said.