President AJK addresses OIC meeting, presents 9-point formula

Sardar Masood Khan, President Azad Jammu and
Kashmir, addressed the well-attended meeting of the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir here at the OIC
Headquarters.
The President also presented his 9-point formula for the
consideration of the OIC to help bring peace to the region and also to move
forward towards resolving the long-standing Kashmir dispute. The meeting
chaired by OIC Secretary General Dr. Yusuf A. Al-Othaimeen and was
attended by the Foreign Ministers of member nations.

The OIC Contact Group on Kashmir has been convened in the run-up to the 14th
OIC Islamic Summit scheduled to meet in Makkah Al-Mukarramah. This will be
the first meeting of the Islamic Summit after Indian aggression against
Pakistan on February 26, this year. Heads of 57 Islamic countries from four
continents will attend the Islamic Summit in which pertinent issues of
interest to the Muslim *Ummah* will be top on the agenda. Other developments
in the Arab, African and Asian regions, issues related to culture, economy,
scientific research, peace and other matters of concern to the OIC member
states will equally be discussed.

The President in his opening remarks expressed his gratitude to the OIC
Secretary General and the member nations for their steadfast support to the
right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people and also for
continuously insisting upon India to end its reign of oppression in Indian
Occupied Kashmir that has claimed over 100,000 lives since 1989 of which
more than a 1000 Kashmiris have been killed after July 2016.

President AJK apprised the participants of the rapidly deteriorating
situation in IOK, as Indian forces have intensified killings, arbitrary
detentions, enforced disappearances, custodial killings, fake encounters,
torture, rape and blindings. “They (Indian occupation forces) have adopted
a scorched earth policy and are destroying houses, businesses, orchards and
crops”, he said.

Citing the recent reports of the Association of Parents of Disappeared
Persons (APDP) and the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society
(JKCCS), the President highlighted that torture and abuse in prisons in IOK
are a rampant practice, where – mostly civilian – prisoners are subjected
to water-boarding, dunking detainees’ heads in water, hangings,
electrocution, burning bodies with iron rods, and sexual humiliation and
torture including rape.

About Author