AJK President urges Kashmiri diaspora to highlight Indian atrocities on global forums

President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Sardar Masood Khan has urged Kashmiri Diaspora to increase their activities on highlighting Indian occupation forces' atrocities against the people of Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK) on international forums, saying millions of Kashmiri expatriates have great potential to expose Indian crimes against humanity in IoK.Masood while talking to members of Kashmiri expatriates here on Monday acknowledged their critical role of highlighting the Kashmir issue in America and European countries and said Pakistanis and Kashmiris expatriates played a highly positive role in creating awareness on the Kashmir dispute abroad.

The President said the role played by the Pakistani and Kashmiri expatriates particularly those settled in the United States (US) and the Europe following August 5, 2019 actions of the Indian government in the IoK is highly appreciable.

Masood said that more than 30,000 Pakistani and the Kashmiri expatriates participated in New York rally on their own expense, while entire expenditure of the participants of the rally held in Houston in support of Narendra Modi were provided by the Indian government.

He urged the delegation to create awareness among the global community on the issue of health and hunger situation which was a result of Indian government's imposition of curfew in the held valley. The global community must step up to end this humanitarian crisis and health emergency before it was too late, he said.

Citing a report compiled and released by 'Doctors Without Borders' in collaboration with the University of Kashmir, AJK President said there was a prevalence of some sort of mental distress, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among nearly 1.8 million Kashmiris living across the border.

Separate studies, he said, had shown that a high number of children between the ages of 11 and 15 suffered from PTSD due to witnessing deaths, being victims of sexual abuse, suffering torture, seeing the destruction of property and loss of education. It has been reported that these children have undergone major behavioral changes.

Masood said Indian occupation forces had kept the entire population of IOK under a siege since August 5, 2019, saying 13,000 young boys had been incarcerated and transferred to the most notorious prison houses all over India. "Young Kashmiris are being shot at, blinded and maimed and the women are sexually molested and harassed. Kashmir has witnessed the highest number of blinds in any conflict zone," he said, adding that 1,200 Kashmiris had been blinded and another 6,000 to 7,000 had been riddled with pellets.

"The anti-India protest rally in New York on the occasion of the UN General Assembly session on September 27, 2019 was the biggest of the history of Manhattan, which was participated by the Pakistani and the Kashmiri expatriates from the United States, Canada, Europe and other parts of the world," he said.

The AJK President said it was a matter of great satisfaction that Kashmiri and Pakistani expatriates in the United States, Canada, UK, and other Western countries were financially stable and had political influence there. Many of them have been representing their communities in the US, UK and the European parliaments, and they also have contacts with the decision-making institutions of these countries.