TAXILA: The fact that India claims to be a large democracy is false and merely an attempt to hoodwink the international community, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Raja Mohammad Farooq Haider Khan said on Tuesday.

Addressing participants of a public meeting in Wah Cantt, PM Haider said: “India is a terrorist state with an aggressive posture and expansionist designs where minorities are not safe. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to take full control of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) in order to win the parliamentary elections in 2024.”

He said Taxila and Wah Cantt had always accommodated Kashmiri refugees and extended every facility to them in 1947 when over 250,000 Muslim inmates were martyred by the despotic Dogra forces.

He said presently Kashmiris were being murdered while their children slaughtered, adding that they were being forced to die of starvation as their land and livelihood had been taken from them.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2021