Strong, Stable Pakistan Key to Kashmir Freedom Struggle: AJK President”

Islamabad-(Mudassar Iqbal)-President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry, has stated that a strong and stable Pakistan is essential for the success of the Kashmiri people’s ongoing struggle for liberation.

In his special message issued on the occasion of Accession to Pakistan Day, the President said that “July 19, 1947, marks a significant chapter in Kashmir’s modern history.” He noted that on this day, the Kashmiri leadership unanimously resolved to align the region’s future with the state of Pakistan.

The president said that he was honored that his father, Chaudhry Noor Hussain was the youngest Kashmiri leader to sign the resolution presented during the historic summit held at the residence of Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan in Srinagar.He said that apart from its geographical contiguity, the people of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir Kashmir shared deep ideological, religious and cultural ties with Pakistan.India, he maintained, has no links whatsoever with Kashmir or its people.

The president recalled that the decision to align Kashmir’s fate with Pakistan was made in the crucial meeting held in Srinagar months before India and Pakistan emerged as two independent states. Under the partition plan, the president said that the princely states were given the right to determine their political future through a plebiscite.

He said that it was India that first took the Kashmir issue to the United Nations only to backtrack from its promises.He said that it was quite unfortunate that India later on resorted to dilly dallying tactics and deprived Kashmiris of their globally recognized right, the right to self-determination.The president said that the Kashmiri people would never allow India’s nefarious designs to succeed.India’s perpetual denial to grant Kashmiris’ their birth right, he said, forced the people of Kashmir to launch a resistance movement in early 1990s. “Today, the unarmed Kashmiris in occupied Kashmir are continuing their struggle under the shadow of nearly a million Indian troops and are scripting a new chapter of resistance in world history”, the president remarked.