Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan on Thursday termed Kashmiri leader Dr Qasim Faktoo as a great hero of Kashmir freedom movement saying that sacrifices rendered by Faktoo family will never be forgotten by the Kashmiri nation. He was addressing a launching ceremony of a book “Bang” authored by Dr Qasim Faktoo, who has been serving life imprisonment till death in an Indian Jail. The book launching ceremony organized by Kashmir Youth Alliance and held at Kashmir House Islamabad was also addressed by Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, Senator Irfan Siddiqui, Senator Dr Zarqa Suhrawardy, President Kashmir Youth Alliance, Dr Mujahid Gilani, Waleed Rasool, and other speakers. Paying homage to the author of the book, President Sardar Masood Khan said Dr. Faktoo and his wife Asiya Andrabi have written a history of sacrifices for the liberation of their motherland. He said that people of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, AJK and Pakistan pay tribute to Dr. Faktoo and his spouse Asiya Andrabi, Syed Ali Gilani, Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmad Shah and other leaders who spent most of their lives in jails and endured horrific pain and suffering in the struggle to get their motherland liberated from alien rule. Expressing his gratitude to Dr Mujahid Gillani, President Kashmiri Youth Alliance for highlighting the long struggle of Dr Qasim Faktoo and the other political leaders who have faced the tyranny of the Indian authorities, President Khan said the book written by Dr Faktoo gives an insight into the political and social fabric of IOJK society as well as the political history and the liberation struggle of Kashmiris. Saying that the book also highlighted how the various ethnicities have been used to rule Kashmir in the past seven decades, Khan said that this book is a good source of information for readers interested in history, politics and social ethos, peace and the threat of war that may arise due to the unresolved Kashmir issue. Saying that India has always used the bilateral talks as a time-buying ploy to consolidate its occupation of Kashmir, Masood Khan said that if India wanted to negotiate with Pakistan and Kashmiris, the talks offer should have come from Narendra Modi, its Home Minister Amit Shah or Ajit Doval, the head of India’s national security. “We must not think that Kashmiris are struggling for their own freedom which has nothing to do with Pakistan. Kashmiris are struggling for their liberation as well as a war to ensure Pakistan’s defense and security”, he cautioned. It is our responsibility and duty to help Kashmiris in their struggle to achieve freedom. If their struggle to attain freedom fails the peace of the region and the existence of Pakistan will be at peril, he went on to say. Sardar Masood further stated that when Indian occupied Kashmir in 1947, the Muslim population in Jammu was 61%, and later thousands of Muslims were massacred and millions of them were pushed to Pakistan that decreased the Muslim population in the region to 33%. Now India has adopted the same strategy for the Kashmir Valley where Muslims are in absolute majority. President Sardar Masood Khan said that Dr. Faktoo’s book ‘Bang’ should be taught as a textbook in educational institutions so that our new generation could get acquainted with Hindutva ideology and ill-intentions of Hindu leaders against Muslims and Pakistan.