DNA

MUZAFFARABAD, July 29: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has strongly condemned the shelling on the civilian population in Neelum valley and targeting an archaeological site in Sharda by the Indian Army and warned that such cowardly acts and frequent violations of the ceasefire agreement will escalate tension in the region.

In a statement on Wednesday, he said that on late Tuesday night, the Indian Army fired mortar shells on government-run girls school in Neelum valley and destroyed a portion of the school. The unprovoked Indian firing from across the Line of Control damaged a residential house completely and destroyed 17 other residential units partially, he added.

The AJK President said that the Indian occupation troops also attempted to target the site of an ancient Hindu University in Shardah Peeth, which is a highly condemnable act. Earlier on Monday, one civilian was martyred when a landmine laid by the Indian Army had gone off near the Line of Control in Samahani sector.

While describing unprovoked Indian Army shelling at the LoC as a well thought out strategy of India, the AJK president said that these provocative acts of India were designed to divert the attention of the international community from its illegal actions in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and to hide the worst human rights violations. However, he maintained that the people of occupied Kashmir were fighting the war of their freedom and the right to self-determination, and the Indian repression and brutalities cannot deter them from their heroic struggle.

Strongly condemning amendment in the Jammu and Kashmir Development Act which gives Indian army an authority to declare any place in IOJK as a strategic area, Khan said this would allow Indian troops to grab that land of Kashmiri people. Saying that India is following the Israeli and the Nazi model of the previous century by settling Hindus in the occupied territory, Sardar Masood Khan appealed to the people of occupied Kashmir to hold forceful protest against this Indian trap, and expose the Indian conspiracies.

The AJK President also regretted the martyrdom of three Kashmiris in Rajauri district of occupied Kashmir, and expressed sympathy with the bereaved families.

Meanwhile, in an online interview with the President Advisory Board of Iqbal Institute of Policy Studies (IIPS), Lt Gen (ret) Haroon Aslam, the AJK president said that the unilateral unlawful actions of India in the held territory have invalidated Simla Accord as India claims that whatever actions it had taken in the disputed territory of occupied Kashmir are its internal matter.

 Kashmiris, he said have been struggling for their freedom and liberty for the past 200 and they have been fighting against foreign occupation, colonial rule and alien domination since 1947. Their struggle to end foreign occupation is legitimate under international law and UN Charters, he asserted.  

Paying tribute to the valiant people of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, President said oppressed people of IOJK are fighting 900,000 strong Indian army with stone and sticks and creating a new history of courage and resilience.