SWABI: Jamaat-i-Islami, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa emir Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan said on Sunday that the Pulwama incident in India-held Kashmir was a reaction to the worst state-terrorism unleashed by Indian security forces against the Kashmiri people since 1989.

Speaking at a meeting of party leaders and workers here, he said best option for India was to allow plebiscite under the UN resolutions to let the Kashmiri people make an independent decision about their fate. “The plebiscite will not only lead to sustained peace in India and Pakistan but will also be good omen for the entire South Asian region,” he said.

Mr Ahmad said Pakistan would continue extending moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people. “We will also highlight continued human rights violations in occupied Kashmir at international level,” he said.

The JI leader lashed out at Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government for its failure to give suitable reply to the Indian leaders’ threatening posture and blaming Pakistan for their own failure in Kashmir.

He said the appeasement policy never worked and the PTI government should know that the entire nation supported the Pak Army against any Indian aggression.

“Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi should keep in mind that Pakistan is country of over 220 million people, has nuclear capability and it will be better for the Indian leaders if they give up chest-thumping,” he said.

Senator Ahmad said Pakistan should not worry about withdrawal of the MFN status by India.

On the occasion, Mehmoodul Hassan, JI district chief, said India had not yet wholeheartedly accepted Pakistan as a nation and had been continuously creating problems for Islamabad at regional and international levels.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2019