President Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Sardar Masood Khan has said that the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor was a huge diplomatic gesture from Pakistan and a solid step to steer the region towards peace and stability.
“It is an opportunity for India to take a page out of this book of diplomacy and reciprocate Pakistan’s overture by stopping killings in Kashmir”, the PaK president said while addressing a seminar, which was organised by the Kashmir Media Service, All Parties Hurriyat Conference and the Jammu and Kashmir Self-Determination Movement here at Kashmir House on Friday.
The seminar which was organised to highlight the contents of the Report on Human Rights in Jammu and Kashmir released by the All-Party Parliamentary Kashmir Group (APPKG) was also addressed by Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Senator Mushaid Hussain Syed, Senator Sitara Ayyaz, Senator General (Retd) Abdul Qayyum, APHC leader Ghulam Muhammad Safi, Syed Faiz Naqashbandi, Foreign Office Spokesman Dr Muhammad Faisal, Chairman Right to Self Determination, Raja Najabat Hussain, Director Kashmir Media Service Sheikh Tajamal-ul-Islam and several others.
The PaK president said,”Pellet guns are still being used, people are losing sight and in a latest incident 19-month old Hibba Jan is lying in a bed and she will never be able to see with her right eye ever.”
The president said that the people of Pakistan were disappointed by India’s External Affairs Minister’s “dismissive and vitriolic” statement which sharply contrasted with the spirit in which the Kartarpur Corridor was opened. It was not easy for Pakistan to take such a “leap of faith against the backdrop of what is taking place in Kashmir”, he said.
The president said that Jammu and Kashmir was indivisible and comprises of five regions; Gilgit Baltistan, PaK, Ladakh, Valley of Kashmir and Jammu. This he said was substantiated by the maps deposited at the United Nations when Kashmir was discussed at the UN Security Council in the 1950s.
Regarding Gilgit Baltistan, he reiterated that entire Kashmiri leadership from both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) has unanimous stance that people of Gilgit Baltistan should be granted their rights without altering basic position on Jammu and Kashmir.
“People of PaK and GB are bonded with each other in the relationship based on love, shared history, culture and broad geographical affinity,” Khan said adding that PaK and GB will soon be connected with each other by constructing Shoonter- Astore Road link.
Referring to the report compiled by All Parties Parliamentary Kashmir Group of British Parliament, PaK President termed the report as a “big success” after the report of United Nations Human Rights Commission.
Speakers on the occasion while stressing the need for an early and amicable solution to Kashmir dispute maintained that granting people of Kashmir their promised right was the only viable solution to the lingering dispute. They also hailed reports by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and All Party Parliamentary Group in the UK Parliament.
Seeking an immediate end to bloodshed in Kashmir they said that the international community should take effective cognizance of people’s miseries there. They also urged the world human rights bodies to pressurize India to repeal Armed Forces Special Powers Act and Public Safety Act.