AJK PM sends letter to FM, envoys over Kashmir Long March

MUZAFFARABAD: Prime Minister of Azad Jammu & Kashmir Raja Farooq Haider has appealed in an urgent letter to the government of Pakistan requesting emergency measures for safety of innocent lives in Kashmir, ARY News reported on Saturday.

The letter addressed to Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, has also been dispatched to the representatives of the United Nations and five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

“The issue of Long March from Azad Kashmir to cross the Line of Control has become a matter of great concern as thousands of Kashmiri people want to cross the LoC,” the letter to Pakistan’s FM read. “The people of Azad Kashmir want to help their besieged brethren in Indian Occupied Kashmir”.

“The Occupied Kashmir is locked down and under curfew with communications closed and around 13,000 young people incarcerated. The government of Azad Kashmir has been under an intense pressure of the people who intend to cross the LoC,” the letter read.

“The participants of the long march have been stopped at the distance of six kilometers from the LoC and they were repeatedly requested to end their march but they want to cross the LoC without caring any hazard to their lives in the act,” the letter further said. “The Long March participants have staged sit-in at Chakothi to Srinagar highway,” the prime minister AJK said in letter.

The organizers of the protest want to meet the ambassadors of the UNSC permanent member countries and representatives of the United Nations, the letter read.

AJK PM Raja Farooq Haider has appealed in the letter for a visit of the UN representatives and envoys of China, United States, Russia and other countries for the sake of safety of the lives of innocent people.