GILGIT: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President, Sardar Masood Khan has said that frequent aggressions by India at the Line of Control are designed to bring Pakistani under pressure and to deter it from extending moral and political support to the Kashmiri people.

However, he maintained that Pakistan was a nuclear power and its defense rested in strong hands.

Addressing students and teachers of Karakoram International University here on Sunday, he said that Pakistan through its befitting response to the Indian aggression on February 27 this year, had proved that no power on the earth could cast an evil eye against it.

Vice Chancellor Karakoram International University Prof. Dr. Ataullah Shah also spoke on the occasion.

The AJK president said that India made a false claim that Kashmir was its integral part. If Kashmir is India's integral part, why it had massed more than 800,000 troops in the state, he asked, and added that the international community including United Nations, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, have declared that the people of occupied Kashmir have the right to determine their future through a plebiscite which is a proof that Kashmir is neither part of India nor a bilateral dispute between Pakistan and India.

Highlighting unbreakable bonds existing between the people of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan over the centuries, Sardar Masood Khan said that on the one hand, geography connects both the regions with each other while on the other, hearts of people of these regions have throbbed together. "Goal of the people of both the region is common, and they are prepared to jointly struggle," he added.

The AJK president said that the liberated territory was part of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor program, and Gilgit-Baltistan had a particular significance in it, and this game changer economic project will yield great benefits in future. "The impression that Gilgit-Baltistan is just a route of the CPEC is not correct because this region is important destination of this strategic project", he added.

Sardar Masood Khan said that the Gilit-Baltistan people wanted to accede to Pakistan while the people of both liberated and the occupied Kashmir also have the same desire, and we are to jointly struggle to achieve the common goal.

He endorsed warning of the veteran pro-freedom leader Syed Ali Gilani to the civilized world that if the international community did not immediately intervene and stopped India from perpetrating repression against the Kashmiri people, a very big holocaust was going to occur in the territory.

Responding to questions from the students, the AJK president advised them to learnt different sciences and technology so that side by side with utilizing bright future prospects, they are also able to tackle the modern day challenges. "Pakistan is a nuclear power but the challenge of turning it into an economic power is still before us," he said adding that we should pledge that we will bring Pakistan among the world's top ten economic powers on its centenary celebrations.

Responding to a question, he said that the public sector universities of Azad Kashmir and Karakoram University should enhance their mutual contacts and utilize each other's experiences. He also desired that Gilgit-Baltistan should also have at least one women's university and one medical college so that the boy and girl students could get higher education at their doorstep. —NNI