Failure to avert massacre in Kashmir may lead to ‘third world war’: Shehryar Afridi

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 11 (APP): Chairman Kashmir Committee Shehryar Khan Afridi Tuesday said that if the United Nations and international community fail to stop systematic bloodshed and ethnic cleansing of Kashmiris in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir may lead the world towards “Third World War”.

“World War-I and World War-II erupted due to failure of nations to provide justice to the oppressed,” he said while addressing the participants of a seminar held here in connection with “World Minorities Day”.

Pakistan has set a model of equal treatment to its minorities and the world needs to learn from it, he added.

Afridi said that the Indian government has unleashed a reign of terror against Indian minorities and Muslims specifically were being lynched under a vicious plan of genocide.

In February this year, he said around 36 Muslims were butchered some even burned to death by the Hindu mobsters in India’s capital Delhi while scores of mosques were also razed to ground.

“The Hindu mobsters were publicly praised by the ruling party parliamentarians with the backing of Hindu Terror Group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),” he further said.

He said that the Indian atrocities being meted out to the minorities in general and Kashmiris in particular must be given an end.

He said that the world community carries a responsibility to provide right of self determination to the people of Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

“It’s the time that the developed world must intervene before its too late. India under a genocide plan is killing its minorities and Muslims are a special target of Indian subjugation”.

“If Muslims are target today, it was Sikh massacre in 1984. It is not only about Muslims. Dalits and Christians are also being exterminated systematically. Indian bureaucrats and politicians publicly kill Muslims, but they also promote Muslim lynching on social and electronic media. Minorities are being killed under a plan”, argued Afridi.

President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan said that Kashmiri society is very compassionate and there is full religious freedom for minorities in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

He said that the RSS regime is propagating and practicing fascism. He said that unlike Pakistan which was created in the name of Islam, India was created in the name of secularism. However, he said the BJP government had unleashed a reign of terror towards Indian Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Dalits.

He said Kashmiris have been killed, maimed, incarcerated under a plan to turn the Muslim-majority state of Kashmir into a minority.

“The world community needs to take notice of the systematic cleansing of Kashmiris; there would be no Kashmiri to defend in next two or three years”.

Todd Shea, the head of CDRS and US citizen working to help earthquake victims in Azad Kashmir said that the hypocrisy of the US and its media reflected a very wrong picture of Pakistan.

He said that it was deplorable that just across the border; we see how minorities are treated in India and other countries of the region.

Former prime minister, Raja Parvez Ashraf said that Pakistan was a bouquet having all sorts of religious colours, flowers and fragrances.

“Quaid-i-Azam’s vision provided equal rights under the country’s constitution and the minority lawmakers have more rights than a Pakistani Muslim as they vote twice to elect our leaders”.

He denounced the maltreatment of Indian minorities and urged the developed world to intervene and pressurize the Indian government to ensure equal rights to the minorities.

Bishop Dr Azad Marshal, President National Council of Churches of Pakistan, said that Quaid-i-Azam wanted minorities to be treated equally in Pakistan.

“We are included in flag of Pakistan and my brethren have died for Pakistan and we fought for Pakistan. We can set a new model of harmony, coexistence and prosperity of minorities in Pakistan,” he said.

MNA Ramesh Kumar Vankwani said that he had visited a Peach Temple in Azad Kashmir which reflects that how Pakistan has been preserving the rich cultural and religious heritage of minorities.

Islamabad