Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry has urged the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to redouble its efforts to help resolve the lingering Kashmir dispute in line with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people. While talking to the ambassadors of Islamic countries during an Iftar dinner hosted by him in Islamabad the other day, the president thanked the friendly countries for their all-out support for the Kashmir cause. “The OIC has always supported the right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people and adopted a principled stand on the issue by condemning India for the violation of human rights in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” the AJK President office said on Thursday. Referring to the worsening political and human rights situation in the occupied territory, the president said that at this crucial point in time, there was a dire need for the Muslim body to raise the issue and play its much-needed role in ending rights violations in the region. Terming Kashmir as an issue of the entire Muslim Ummah, Barrister Chaudhry said that the OIC countries should take a united stand to stop the bloodbath of innocent civilians in the region. He said that Muslims in occupied Kashmir were being barred from offering Friday prayers in mosques. “Kashmiri youths are being killed day in and day out in fake encounters, women are being harassed and humiliated and children orphaned,” he said, adding that along with Hurriyat leadership, human rights defenders and members of civil society had been booked under sedition charges and thrown behind the bars. “It is therefore imperative that the Muslim Ummah should discharge its moral and legal responsibilities and play its due role in granting the Kashmiri people their right to self-determination guaranteed to them by the international community,” he stressed. Urging the OIC member countries to revisit their policy vis a vis the establishment of ties with India, Barrister Chaudhry said that the OIC must take a bold initiative and mount pressure on India to resolve the Kashmir issue and stop the ongoing atrocities in the held valley. On this occasion, the ambassadors of Muslim countries, including Turkiye, Palestine, Cyprus, Bahrain, Lebanon, Sudan, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Malaysia, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Syria, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan, Jordan and others were present.