Abdul Qayyum Chaudhry
India is vehemently trying to convince international community regarding normalcy in IIOJK while situation in disputed region is quite far from being normal.
Incessant Indian illegitimate episode of terror and plunder in the only law prevailing in the valley; with political movement of politicians being restricted, Kashmiris’ vibrant youth being tortured, extra judicial killings a norm, house arrests a routine and fake encounters and abductions being done on pity excuses. Foreseeing fully well her defeated fate, India is consistently making efforts to change demography of the region.
Indian illegitimate administration turned the entire occupied territory into the biggest prison of the world, by laying a military siege that still continues to the present day, as I write.
To counter the Indian agenda and narrative, there is one man who is being acknowledged by everyone for his decades long untiring efforts, the President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry. He has played a tangible role to call on the western powers to end their silence and hold India accountable for committing the worst kind of atrocities, suppressive measures and human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
The AJK President Barrister Sultan has completed his twelve days visit to UK, Ireland and Brussels recently where he met with parliamentarians, representatives of think tanks, top officials and other dignitaries including the Chairperson of the European Parliament on Human Rights, Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament and briefed them on the current situation in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
In a specially organized conversation with me, State President Barrister Sultan asserted the global community now wants to hear the position of Kashmiris. Answering my query, he proclaimed that British Members of Parliament have assured him of their full support to raise the issue at the parliament session and ask the British Prime Minister about the release of Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik.
Being a diplomatic and defence analyst, I after meeting with the leading Kashmiri leader, Barrister Sultan in person on numerous occasions as well as peeping into his struggle through national and international academic circles, it was not difficult for me to establish the fact that Barrister Sultan is not only very committed to the noble cause of Kashmir but has the capability to lead from the front.
Throughout the span of visit, AJK President held a series of meetings with members of the European Parliament, the Irish Parliament and the British Parliament, where he apprised them of the worsening political and human rights situation in the Indian occupied Kashmir.
Barrister Sultan also addressed public gatherings in London, Birmingham, Halifax, Slav, Brussels, Edinburgh and Dublin. While in the special meeting of the State President with the members of Parliament at Longford City Council in Dublin, the decision has also been taken to form Friends of Kashmir in the Parliament of Ireland.
The process of establishing Friends of Kashmir in the Irish Parliament will be completed within a couple of weeks, through which the Kashmir issue will be aggressively highlighted in the Irish Parliament.
During his stay in the UK, Barrister Sultan also formed a nine-member committee of legal experts that will plead the JKLF Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik’s case at international level to secure his release from Indian prison.
Throughout the visit’s period, in the high-level meetings at different places, Barrister Sultan informed the western nations that at this crucial juncture, the people of Occupied Kashmir were desperately looking for the international community’s help. Factually supported, he was successful in convincing European leaders that with the special status of Occupied Kashmir abolished on August 05, 2019, India has intensified her human rights violations in Occupied Kashmir.
Identical to his recent visit, numerous times in the past Barrister Sultan has also played a significant, proactive and pre-emptive role by visiting, addressing as well as formulating Kashmir Committees in British Parliament, European Parliament, Canadian Parliament, Norwegian Parliament, House of Lords, House of Commons and American House of Congress; thereby checkmating Indian narrative and Indian lobbyists in the world practically.
The Veteran Kashmiri Leader, Quaid-e-Kashmir Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry has carried out five million marches including one Million March from Trafalgar Square in London to Ten Downing Street in 2014, the second Million March in front of the United Nations in New York in 2015 and third March in Belgium’s capital Brussels in the year 2016 in front of the European Union and the European Parliaments. Similarly, in 2017, there were a million marches in Dublin and in 2018, in Berlin.
Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry is the leading figure of the Kashmir struggle, for a right to self-determination from Indian tyranny. In recognition of the initiation of longstanding struggle for the true cause of Kashmir all around the world, Sultan has been bestowed the popular title of “Quaid-e-Kashmir” by the Kashmiri nation. Undeniably, many prominent domestic and international writers have recognized his role as the noteworthy leader of the longstanding Kashmir struggle.
It is worthwhile to mention here that during his swearing-in ceremony Barrister Sultan had promised that being a President he would continue his ambassadorial and political efforts, as his foremost priority, to highlight the Kashmir issue in its true perspective and he also assured the people of occupied Kashmir that he would launch a strong and effective diplomatic campaign for their freedom from Indian yoke.
