New Delhi, February 03 (KMS): Illegally detained senior APHC leader and the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, has rejected the so-called election process in occupied Kashmir, saying that election and selection in the territory is a futile exercise by New Delhi to prolong its illegal hold on Jammu and Kashmir.
Shabbir Ahmed Shah in a message from New Delhi’s Tihar Jail where he has been detained under a fake and fabricated case for the past over one-and-a-half months, called for settling the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.
He said both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers and cannot afford continued tension so it is in the interest of the entire region that New Delhi and Islamabad come closer by settling the Kashmir dispute which is a bone of contention between the two countries.
Shabbir Shah said India is using all sorts of imperialistic measures to suppress the Kashmiris’ just demand for right to self-determination and has started fresh spree of cordon and search operations, killings, raids and arrests in the territory to suppress the people’s sentiments. However, he said Kashmiri people have time and again exhibited steadfastness and urged the world that Kashmiris were oppressed by a country claiming to be the world’s largest democracy.
He deplored that the whole world is witnessing the genocide of Kashmiri people without uttering a single word because of its economic interests in India. He said Kashmiris believe that killings, arrests and operations by the troops cannot deter them from raising their voice against the Indian occupation. The whole population of Kashmir is praiseworthy which is continuously struggling for right to self-determination and making it clear to the world that the Kashmiris will not rest till they achieved their inalienable right, he added.
The APHC leader said peace and prosperity of entire South Asia, in general, and India and Pakistan, in particular, is at stake because of the Kashmir dispute. “India cannot go away with the ongoing dance of death and destruction in Kashmir for long and has to come on table because dialogue is the only way to move forward,” he maintained.