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Srinagar: The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has criticized India’s portrayal of Jammu and Kashmir as an internal issue, accusing India of hiding the stark realities of its occupation. The APHC denounced India’s attempts to project normalcy in the Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir through propaganda and high-profile visits.
According to a statement by Kashmir Media Service, APHC spokesperson Advocate Abdul Rashid Minhas rejected the Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s remarks against Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) as baseless. He argued that such statements are meant to obscure the difficult conditions in the region and reflect a longstanding tendency of Indian leaders to mislead their populace.
The APHC also took issue with recent comments by Omar Abdullah, made alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ganderbal, accusing Abdullah of compromising the interests of Jammu and Kashmir and yielding to Indian dominance.
The APHC stated that the Indian government is attempting to change the demographic character of the Muslim-majority region and disempower its residents through policies perceived as anti-Kashmir and authoritarian edicts imposed since August 2019. These efforts, the APHC noted, are designed to influence electoral outcomes in favor of India’s ruling party, which uses Jammu and Kashmir as a political scapegoat.
Furthermore, the Hurriyat pointed out that the Indian administration is using divide-and-rule tactics by fragmenting the population of Jammu and Kashmir along religious, regional, ethnic, and political lines to suppress collective aspirations.
The APHC emphasized that the people of occupied Kashmir have been engaged in a struggle for their UN-recognized right to self-determination for the past 77 years and remain resolute in their fight. A resolution to the Kashmir issue, they stressed, must respect the political aspirations of its people rather than being based on regional or cultural factors.
Calling on the United Nations to exert pressure on India, the APHC reiterated that Kashmir is a political dispute and urged the global body to ensure that India grants the Kashmiri people their inalienable right to self-determination, as acknowledged by the international community and agreed upon by both India and Pakistan.
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