Daily Times

In the wake of Indian state terrorism, the number of mental patients has crossed over 100,000 figure in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

This has been revealed in a report issued by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service on the occasion of World Mental Health Day on Saturday.

The report says the number of mental patients had witnessed an alarming increase since the imposition of strict military siege in IIOJK by Narendra Modi-led communal Indian government on August 05, last year.

The report maintained the human rights violations by Indian troops including beatings, torture, unjustified arrest and extrajudicial killings had adversely affected the local psyche.

The report said that enforced disappearance was one of the most harrowing consequences of the armed conflict in the occupied territory and during the last 31 years more than 10,000 people had been subjected to enforced disappearance by the troops.

“Of the disappeared persons, between 2,000 to 2,005 were married males.

Although men have been subjected to disappearance largely, but women have been badly affected because of being related to them as daughters, mothers, sisters and wives,” the report added.

Meanwhile, the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has said that closing eyes like a pigeon will not avert dangers, we have to prepare at every level to fight the storm coming from India by realizing the evil intentions of the enemy.

“The followers of Hindutva do not want to eliminate the Muslims in India and Kashmir alone but are conspiring, what they are publicly saying, to extend their frontiers up to Kohala, Azad Pattan and Wakhan,” he insisted.

He expressed these views while addressing a luncheon hosted in honour of the leaders and workers of the Milli Yakjehti Council (National Solidarity Council) at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, Muzaffarabad on Saturday, AJK President office later told APP Saturday evening.

The event was also addressed by Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan leader Liaquat Baloch and former Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami Azad Kashmir and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of AJK Legislative Assembly, Abdul Rashid Turabi and other speakers.

The President urged the religious scholars and spiritual leaders to use the forums of mosques, imambargahs, seminaries, and shrines to caution the people about the imminent dangers, and tell them that the fascist Indian rulers have altogether changed the status of occupied Kashmir, and now they are eyeing on Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The religious scholars besides promoting unity and harmony among different schools of thought, should mentally prepare the nation to counter the threats confronting the country,”he added.

About the situation prevailing in occupied Kashmir, the AJK president said that Indian designs can be gauged from the fact that it had deployed one million regular troops in the held territory while the former Soviet Union had deployed 250,000 troops during 20 years war and later the United States had deployed 150,000 troops to capture Afghanistan.

He went on to say that India had deployed one million troops to not fight any terrorism but to salaughter eight million Kashmiri people.

Khan said that after having failed to suppress the Kashmiri people through inhuman repression, India had decided to change the demography of Kashmir by settling Indian Hindus in occupied Kashmir so that the Kashmir issue is buried for good.

Speaking at the function, Jamaat Islami Pakistan leader Liaqat Baloch said that all tricks and plans of the fascist Indian regime are bound to fail, and the Kashmir would certainly become independent.

Declaring Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan as the first defence lines of Pakistan, Liaqat Baloch said that the people of both regions must get the rights equal to their Pakistani compatriots. He warned that the federal government must not take any action about Gilgit-Baltistan, which is harmful for the Kashmir liberation movement in any sense, and said that plebiscite in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions was the sole solution to the Kashmir issue.

The Chairman Public Accounts Committee of AJK Legislative Assembly, Abdul Rashid Turabi lauded the efforts of Azad Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan in highlighting the Kashmir issue with full courage, bravery and wisdom at the national and international level.

He said that President Masood played not only the role of ambassador of Pakistan and Kashmiris but also represented the entire Muslim Ummah. He said that the role of Sardar Masood Khan in the field of diplomacy is a role model for all ambassadors of the country. He said that as the President of Azad Kashmir, we are both satisfied and proud of the way he went to every nook and corner of the world and highlighted the sufferings and plights of oppressed Kashmiris of IOJK.