16 April 2018: In an open letter to the leaders of 54 Commonwealth nations attending their biennial meeting in London this week, the JKLF has urged the Commonwealth countries to constructively engage with India, Pakistan and Kashmiris for a durable and equitable resolution for the 70 year-long Kashmir conflict.
In a statement issued Monday by the head of JKLF’s Diplomatic affairs professor Zafar Khan, JKLF has urged the Commonwealth nations to set up a mediation panel to engage with India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris for a durable and equitable resolution of the Kashmir conflict.
The JKLF in its statement reminded the Commonwealth leaders that the JKLF had written to the Secretary General of the Commonwealth Baroness Scotland in early December 2017 and urged her to ensure that the 25th Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting-CHOGM- to play a constructive role on the political status of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The JKLF reiterated its position that the people of Jammu Kashmir desired peace, and wished for their country to become a bridge of peace and amity between India and Pakistan, and not a perpetual bone of contention in South Asian. However, the JKLF statement reminds the Commonwealth nations that the Jammu Kashmir conflict should not be seen as a bilateral or territorial dispute between India and Pakistan but as an international issue which concerns the unfettered right to self-determination of 20 million Kashmiris to determine their political destiny across both sides of the ceasefire line,” said the JKLF statement.
“The JKLF reminded the Commonwealth leaders that as nuclear powers India and Pakistan, present a mortal danger to 1.5 billion people of South Asia, the Commonwealth has an international and moral obligation to disengage both countries in Jammu Kashmir for the sake of peace and prosperity in South Asia and the world,” the statement added.
According to the statement, Professor Zafar Khan has also called on Kashmiri Diaspora in Britain, to protest in London during the Commonwealth meetings against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and atrocities committed by Indian armed forces in Jammu Kashmir.
