MIRPUR (AJK)-AJK President Sardar Masood Khan Monday accused India of manoeuvring changing demography in the occupied Jammu & Kashmir through coercive, immoral and unlawful tactics of settling the Indian nationals in the occupied territory in blatant violation the UN resolutions and global legal norms and commitments on Kashmir.
He was addressing seminar titled "Indian designs to change the demography of Kashmir - Violation of UN Resolutions and International Law", hosted jointly by All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Kashmir Media Service and the Kashmir Institute of International Relations in the federal capital town on Monday.
Sardar Masood Khan said, "For the past decade the Indian government is pursuing a policy of repopulating IOK by shifting Indian citizens from Bihar, Punjab and Bengal to make the Kashmiris a minority in their own territory".
The conference was attended and addressed among others by leading politicians, academicians and legal experts including JI Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq, PPP AJK President Latif Akber, Vice Chancellor Mirpur University of Science & Technology (MUST) Prof Dr Habibur Rehman, veteran lawyer Ahmar Bilal Sufi, Justice (r) Shah Khawar, Dr Muhammad Khan, former AJK president Muhammad Yaqoob, and UK-based Kashmiri expatriates leader and chief of Jammu Kashmir Self-Determination Movement Raja Najabat Hussain.
The AJK president continued that the situation warrants effective communication to highlight the Kashmir issue and counter the misperceptions created by the Indian government". He said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have written to the UN and other international organizations of the human rights violations and demographic change taking place in IOK under the patronage of the Indian government. Transfer of land and creating a change in the local demography is against the UN Resolutions, Geneva Convention and the rulings of the International Criminal Court.
For 70 years the India's government has used economic incentives, torture and killings to bring down the freedom movement of the people of Kashmir. The AJK president said that, "The Indian government has always backtracked from all her commitments on Kashmir and has never sincerely taken up the Kashmir issue during bilateral talks," he pointed out, adding that it is time we engage the international civil society and also the Indian civil society to positively highlight the Kashmir issue.
Massod Khan said, "We should develop a comprehensive policy and a collective narrative on the Kashmir issue. Daily communiqué with international organizations is necessary to help draw attention to the Kashmir issue".
Addressing the seminar speakers emphasised that the Kashmir issue needs to be presented as a legal case to the international community and organizations.
They proposed that a full time legal team of lawyers of international repute may be engaged to prepare the case on the issue. It was further proposed that a think-tank consisting of academicians and ex diplomats may also be established to present workable solutions on the issue.
The AJK president urged that the recommendations of the seminar must be recorded and shared with the Hurriyat leaders and the international community.