JKLF UK, fiercely opposes the 14th Amendment AJK Act 1974

London: President of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, UK Zone, Syed Tahseen Gilani has condemned the draft of 14th Amendment to Act 1974 of AJK and has labelled it as a document that is designed to sabotage political democracy, and a draconian act on the already limited political rights and freedoms that people of Jammu Kashmir have. In a statement, Mr Gilani has stated that the representative government of AJK & Gilgi-Baltistan parts of Jammu Kashmir – needs a government that can lead on the diplomatic front to achieve resolution of the conflict as per wishes of the people of Jammu Kashmir.

We have effectively allowed Indian & Pakistan to drive international discourse on Jammu Kashmir, and what both parties have done – for over 7 decades – is that they have obscured the issue so much it is now merely seen as a geographical conflict between two nations and not as the issue of the statehood and lives of 15m Kashmiris.

The blatantly suppressive measures being taken at the moment by both countries to change the status of Jammu Kashmir state and inflict further oppression through barbaric policies of basic freedoms are going unchallenged at the international stage, and this is precisely because of the fact that we have allowed these two countries to hijack our cause and our movement.

It is time for us to wake up before it’s too late. How can we have our occupiers and our oppressors as our representatives too? It is now our duty, and I believe the only way forward at the moment, is for Kashmiri political leadership in AJK & GB parts of the state to come together and, along with Kashmiri leadership in Indian Occupied Kashmir, represent the state on diplomatic front instead of Pakistan. We cannot allow barbaric treatment of our brothers and sisters and denial of fundamental human rights to continue.