Islamabad: President Azad Kashmir Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry has said that the OIC should redouble its efforts to help stop oppression and oppression of the Kashmiri Muslims at the hands of the Indian occupation forces and the massacre of Palestinian people by Israel.
He expressed these views while talking to ambassadors of different Islamic countries during an iftar dinner hosted in their honour by him at Kashmir House Islamabad. Speaking on the occasion, the President said that the OIC has always supported the right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people and adopted a principled stand by condemning India for the violation of human rights in Occupied Kashmir but the time has come when the Muslim body should adopt a coherent strategy to prevent further bloodshed and brutality in both the territories that have been under relentless suppression for the past several decades.
“We call upon the OIC to put pressure on India to resolve the Kashmir issue and respect the rights of the Kashmiri people”, he said, while briefing the ambassadors of Islamic countries about the latest situation in the Indian occupied Kashmir.
He told the ambassadors of Islamic countries that India has stepped up the violation of human rights in the disputed territory. The Kashmiri people, he said, were facing a difficult situation. “Given the highly volatile situation in the region, the international community, especially the Muslim Ummah should play their role to resolve the Kashmir issue to bring an end to bloodshed and violence in Occupied Kashmir”, Barrister Chaudhry said.
Terming Kashmir and Palestine as issues of Muslim Ummah, the AJK president said that the Muslim countries cannot ignore these decades long unresolved issues, endless sufferings and slaughter of hapless Kashmiri and Palestinians that continue to bruise the hearts and minds of the Muslims all around the world.
He lamented that Israel was martyring Palestinian Muslims by bombing them even in the blessed month of Ramadan.
He said that Kashmiri Muslims were also being prevented from offering Friday prayers in mosques by the Indian occupying forces of India, whereas innocent children and women were being blinded by pellet guns. ” In such a situation, the role and responsibilities of the Muslim Ummah have increased manifold”, the president said, adding that it was high time that the OIC should play its much needed role to resolve the lingering Kashmir dispute in line with the UNSC resolutions.
The Iftar dinner was attended by ambassadors and diplomats from Turkey, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Jordan, Tajikistan, Sudan, Bahrain, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Norway and other countries. Whereas DG Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan for the Middle East Fauzia Fayyaz was present on the occasion.