ISLAMABAD, May 02 (APP):President of Azad Jammu Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan has asked Turkey to mediate for the resolution of Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
“We are ready to suggest that Turkey can act as a mediator or facilitator for resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” President Masood said in an interview to a Turkish national television channel, Ulusal Kanal.
Praising Turkish president Erdogan for offering his good offices and mediation for the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, he thanked Turkey for its strong, consistent and steadfast support to the right to self-determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir at all the international forums especially in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Turkey, Khan said, was the founding member of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir and has always called for an end to the massive human right violations taking place in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).
The AJK president also expressed deep appreciation of the people of Azad Kashmir for Turkey’s generous support to the reconstruction of AJK after the 2005 earthquake.
“People of Azad Kashmir are really indebted to the people of Turkey because after the 2005 devastating earthquake Turkey gave generous support to AJK for the reconstruction of its dilapidated infrastructure with speed and maintaining a very high quality, the President said.
He added that capital of Muzaffarabad has become a Turkish town because of the many buildings that have been built by Turkish companies on the pattern of Ottoman architecture.
Now we have exchanges of faculty and students of Azad Kashmir universities and Turkish universities that would further cement the brotherly ties between Turkey, Pakistan and AJK.
He invited Turkish entrepreneurs and business persons to come to Azad Kashmir and invest in education, health, tourism and industry to help the state turn into an engine of growth for economic development.
Referring to the situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) AJK President said Kashmiris in the occupied territory were under siege and being killed, maimed, blinded, tortured, and hounded by the occupying forces and use of sexual molestation and rape has become an instrument of terror.
“The Indian occupation forces are killing Kashmiris by using state terrorism to subjugate them. They are killing young men, arresting people and using civilians as a human shield in cordon and search operations. In the past two months alone twenty-six young men were killed in IOK, the president said.
He went on to say that in order to divert world attention from these killings and brutalities in Indian Occupied Kashmir, the Indian troops deliberately initiate fire against the civilian on the Pakistani side of Kashmir.
“Pakistan and people of Jammu and Kashmir believe India’s state terrorism or its repression against Kashmiris was not going to resolve the problem. We will have to use multilateral diplomacy to find a diplomatic solution to the dispute”.
Kashmiris and Pakistanis, he further said did not think that the Kashmir dispute could be resolved through military means.
It is India that thought power and state terrorism could subjugate the people of Kashmir.
Replying to question, President Masood Khan said whatever the forum, whether it is the United Nations, SCO or any other, the people of Kashmir have to be consulted because their voice ultimately matters for the resolution of Jammu and Kashmir issue as the whole dispute is about the future of the people of the territory.