Pervez Khattak blasts India for atrocities in IHK

NOWSHERA: Condemning Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir, Federal Minister for Defence Pervez Khattak said on Thursday that the decades-long issue must be resolved through peaceful ways.

He was addressing a gathering in connection with Black Day in Azakhel Payan. Provincial Minister for Irrigation Liaqat Khattak, Member National Assembly Dr Imran Khattak, District Nazim Ashfaq Khan, Tehsil Nazim Wahid Khattak and others were also present. He said the Indian atrocities against the helpless Kashmiris were intolerable and inhuman, adding that people of Pakistan would stand by Kashmiris.

The defence minister said the Indian nefarious designs against Kashmir could never be fulfilled and Prime Minister Imran Khan was advocating the case globally. “The PTI government will use all available resources to highlight the Kashmir cause,” he said and warned India against any misadventure.

“There is no doubt that Pakistan is passing through a critical phase and government is trying to streamline its taxation system through which the country could make progress,” he added. He said, “It’s our foremost responsibility to steer the country of the crises. The people have to bear with that until the circumstances are normalised”.

Meanwhile, a vendor was arrested after he reportedly hoisted an Afghan flag in Board Bazaar during Pakistan’s Independence Day celebrations. The police report said Naimat, the Afghan national, hoisted an Afghan flag on a signboard in Board Bazaar when the people were celebrating the Independence Day.

The report said the Town-III officials removed the flag after its pictures circulated on the social media.

The police on Thursday arrested vegetable seller Naimat for allegedly provoking Afghans and trying to develop differences between refugees and locals on the occasion of Independence Day of Pakistan. A case was registered against the accused.

Thousands of Afghan refugees own shops and houses and sell fruit, vegetables and other items in cabins and on pushcarts in the Board Bazaar.

They have been living in the area and other parts of the provincial capital for around four decades, with the majority enjoying cordial relations with locals.