Kashmir will be free soon, Modi is in trouble, says PM Imran

MUZAFFARABAD: Prime Minister Imrna Khan on Wednesday predicted that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in trouble over his August 5 move, and said that Kashmir will be free from the Indians’ grasp very soon.

The prime minister was speaking to the Azad Kashmir Assembly on the occasion of ‘Youm-e-Istehsal’ where he said that India had gone into a ‘dead alley’.

The prime minister urged members of the Azad Kashmir valley, who had complained of Pakistan’s response earlier in their speeches, to remain steadfast in their mission.

“”It looks as if all of you, from the inside, are feeling a bit like you have lost,” he told parliamentarians at the Azad Kashmir Assembly after they made speeches before the prime minister. “I, on the other hand, believe that Kashmiris are going through an era [of suffering] which, God willing, will end in victory for them,” he said.

The PM went on to say that Modi had made some wrong assumptions about the Kashmir issue before he embarked on the August 5 misadventure. The prime minister said that India assumed Pakistan would stay silent on the issue and not highlight it in front of the world.

“This was because previously, when they [Indian government] used pellet guns in occupied Kashmir, and our government had not been in power, Pakistan hardly talked about it,” he said, adding that this was not the case now. PM Imran paid tribute to his government for raising the issue now so that the whole world knew about it.

Political map, Nishan-e-Pakistan for Syed Ali Geelani

The premier said that he had met Kashmiri leader Farooq Abdullah 10-15 years ago during a conference and he had always spoken about talks with India. “Now, I see even he is saying that Quaid-e-Azam was right [about partition with India],” he said.

“As far as my analysis is concerned, India is entering a ‘blind alley’,” he said. “I assure you, we will highlight this issue at every forum,” he added.

PM Imran said that his government could not properly implement his plan as there was a “march” (referring to the JUI-F’s Azadi dharna) and the coronavirus problem which had caused distractions.

Speaking about Pakistan’s first political map released yesterday, PM Imran said Pakistan needed to react and tell the world that this was a disputed territory, more so after India claimed Gilgit-Baltistan and other territories.

PM Imran announced that Pakistan will honour Syed Ali Geelani with the Nishan-e-Pakistan award. The premier described him as a “big leader” of not only Kashmir but also of the region.

PM slams ‘brutal fascist military siege by India’

Earlier today, the prime minister tweeted: “Kashmiris in IIOJK have been subjected to a brutal fascist military siege by India since its illegal actions of 5th Aug last year followed by efforts to change the demography of IIOJK,” the prime minister said in a tweet on Wednesday.