ISLAMABAD (Kashmir English): The convener of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), Ghulam Mohammad Safi, has strongly rejected the statement made during the joint press conference of the foreign ministers of India and Afghanistan, on Kashmir.
He said Jammu and Kashmir is not a part of India but an internationally recognized disputed territory.
He said that the stance expressed in the joint press conference is against the relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, which clearly recognize the Kashmir issue as an unresolved dispute and declare the free plebiscite of the Kashmiri people as the only way to resolve it.
Statement on Kashmir deviation from historical facts
India’s declaration of Kashmir as an integral part is a blatant deviation from historical facts, international laws, and public aspirations.
Ghulam Mohammad Safi expressed deep regret and concern over the Afghan Foreign Minister’s statement, saying that the endorsement of India’s stance by a brotherly Muslim country is very disappointing.
He said that a country like Afghanistan, which has itself gone through the sufferings of foreign domination and wars, should express solidarity with the Kashmiri people on the basis of justice and principles.
Kashmir’s freedom movement is not an extremist or border dispute, but a legitimate, principled, and just struggle for the right to self-determination, which has also been recognized by the United Nations, he said.
Safi said that India has forcibly occupied the state of Jammu and Kashmir since 1947, which the Kashmiri people have never accepted.
For the past seven decades, India, through its military might, has martyred millions of Kashmiris, disappeared thousands, and imprisoned countless in notorious Indian jails.
He said that now India, under a new conspiracy, is trying to change the Muslim identity and demographic ratio of the state by settling non-state residents in Kashmir, which is a clear violation of international human rights and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Ghulam Mohammad Safi appealed to the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the international community to immediately take notice of India’s illegal occupation, human rights violations, and demographic changes, and to play an effective and practical role in securing the right to self-determination for the Kashmiri people.
He expressed his resolve that the Kashmiri people’s struggle for freedom is peaceful, legitimate, and principled, and this struggle will continue until the people of Jammu and Kashmir achieve their internationally recognized right to self-determination.
