India Neither Democratic Nor Secular State: AJK President

The Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan has said that India's claims of being the world's largest democracy stand exposed to the entire world

MUZAFFARABAD,(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Jan, 2020 ) The Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan has said that India's claims of being the world's largest democracy stand exposed to the entire world.

"India is neither democratic nor a secular state but instead has become a country where minorities and non-Hindu people are being denied their right to live," he added. In a message aired by the media on the occasion of India's Republic Day, he said that the freedom-loving people across the world particularly the people of Pakistan and Kashmir are observing black day today to expose India's hegemonic and fanatic designs, particularly the oppressive face of the Indian government, ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, and its ally RSS.

The AJK President lamented that even after 72 years, India continues to occupy the Muslim majority state of Kashmir, and now under a malicious plan, it is ousting the Kashmiri people from their homeland.

"The plan is designed to ethnically cleanse IOJK of the Kashmiri people and turn the Muslim majority of Kashmir into a minority," he added. Sardar Masood Khan pointed out that when the Modi regime attempted to impose its fascist designs on the Indian Muslims and other minorities, the whole of India had risen up against the BJP and the RSS, and thus the extremist Narendra Modi paved the way for a Kashmir-like uprising in the length and breadth of his own country.

The State President strongly condemned unlawful Indian actions of August 5, 2019. "We convey to India to lift its occupational lockdown of Kashmir, pull back its occupation troops, end the siege and grant right of self-determination to the Kashmir people," he said and added that the occupied territory had never been a part of India nor will it happen in future.

Sardar Masood Khan said that the Indian rulers and military chiefs must stop threatening to wage a war on Azad Kashmir and Pakistan, otherwise, the brunt of even a minor misstep will have to be borne by coming generations.

"Today is certainly a black day because the people of occupied Kashmir are facing Indian brutalities and barbarity", he added. The AJK President called upon the international community particularly the United Nations to move forward, and instead of relying on hollow statements, take concrete steps to prevent the ethnic cleansing of the Kashmiri people.

He also paid glowing tributes to the Hurriyat leaders and hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri people who have always been offering resistance and sacrifices amidst Indian brutalities.