JKLF slams harassment by AJK authorities

Staff Report

LAHORE: Punjab Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) President Syed Faisal Shah Nazki on Sunday condemned the Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) authorities for harassing JKLF workers.

Addressing a meeting held at the party secretariat here, the JKLF president said the AJK state machinery was harassing and raiding the houses of party leaders including Sardar Saghir, Anwar Iqbal, Shafiq Ashraf, Ibrar Shad, Zulfiqar Naqvi, Asghar Iqbal, Fiaz Ahmad and a number of party workers.

Mr Nazki said Pakistan had no right to impose its policies in AJK forcefully, as the time for deciding the fate of Kashmiris of both valleys had come. He said besides Indian brutality in Held Kashmir, Pakistani intelligence agencies were also planning to sabotage the Kashmir movement by merging AJK with itself.

Mr Nazki said Kashmir’s freedom was an international issue and both India and Pakistan was trying to divide Kashmir between them. Mr Nazki said Kashmiris and their leadership had been convinced that an independent Kashmir was the only solution of the Kashmir issue.

Mr Nazki said as the Indian leadership was not ready to listen to the world community, Pakistan’s leadership as well as military generals had forgotten Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s message, who had clearly said Kashmiris could join either India or Pakistan.

Mr Nazki said according to the UN commission’s January 5, 1949 report for settling the Kashmir issue, Kashmiris had a right of self-determination but due to vested interests of the western countries as well as India and Pakistan, Kashmiris were deprived of their right of an independent state.

Mr Nazki said as many as 80,000 Kashmiris had laid down their lives for their homeland and yet they continue struggling for their homeland. The August 13, 1948 resolution of Kashmir was the effort of Mr Jinnah, but right after his death, Pakistan’s leadership sabotaged the issue for its own interests.

Mr Nazki demanded UN observers in AJK and AJK President Maj Gen (r) Sardar Muhammad Anwar to immediately release JKLF leaders arrested during the AJK election in 2001.

The meeting was also attended by Kashmiri freedom organisations including the Muslim Conference, Dukhtaran Kashmir, Voice of Kashmir, Jammu Kashmir Awami Tehrik, Peoples Party Azad Kashmir, Jammu Kashmir Democratic and Foreign Affairs Committee and Students Liberation Front.

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