AJK leader urges world to not forget Kashmir during crisis.

Byline: Tariq Naqash

MUZAFFARABAD -- IndiAgnant at 'complete silence' of the United Nations over the happenings in India-held Jammu and Kashmir, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan on Sunday warned of catastrophic outcome of the situation rapidly developing in the disputed region.

Addressing a conference through an online link, he pointed out that the India-held territory was under a double lockdown since Aug 5 last year; and with the coronavirus lockdown, the region warranted immediate attention of the international community.

The conference was orgaAnised by Tehreek-e-Kashmir (TeK), a Birmingham-based organisation in the UK working on the Kashmir dispute. Chaired by TeK president Fahim Kayani, the conference was attended by more than 50 of its office-bearers from 20 towns in the UK through an internet link.

'While the world is fighting the new coronavirus, India's occupation machinery is mercilessly killing the Kashmiri youth during the so-called cordon and search operations and then posthumously and falsely accusing them of militancy,' Mr Khan said.

He lamented that thousands of arbitrarily detaiAned prisoners, mostly young boys, were 'rotting in cramped concentration camps and jails in the occupied territory and India and the fascist Indian government had ignored appeals of six international human rights organisations for their release'.

The AJK president alleAged that Covid-19 patients in held...