Pakistan has appointed a new ambassador to the United States. The former president of the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Masood Khan, is also the ambassador of Pakistan to China. Khan, whose appointment is raising eyebrows, has a history of sympathising with Islamists and Jihadists.
An article by Sam Westrop in Middle East Forum has highlighted Masood’s open support to terrorist organisations and Jihadist elements.
Masood Khan and his links to Islamists and Jihadists
On several occasions in the past, Khan has shamelessly stood by the Jihadists. He had paid homage to the terrorist Burhan Wani who was neutralized by Indian forces five years ago. In July 2021, Khan was serving as the ‘president’ of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
According to News Agency ANI, at that time, in his special message on the fifth anniversary of Wani’s death, he said, “We grieve today for Burhan Wani. He lives on… in our hearts. He sacrificed his life for a cause.” According to Pakistani media, he further added Wani was a “role model for the freedom fighters across the globe”. He also said, “the liberation of Kashmir and a defeat of India is the writing on the wall.”
In June 2017, when US State Department designated Hizbul Mujahideen a terrorist organization, Khan extended his full support to the organization. He called US sanctions against Sayed Salahuddin, leader of Hizbul Mujahideen, “unjustified”. Khan continued to support Hizbul on several occasions.
According to a report in Geo TV, Masood claimed Hizbul had nothing to do with terrorism. In 2020, after the death of Junaid Sehrai, a top commander of Hizbul, Khan issued an official statement paying homage to Sehrai and his associate, Taria Ahmed, for “offering the supreme sacrifice of their lives for the freedom of their motherland.” Khan further said, “all the martyrs and their sacrifices are an asset for the liberation movement.”
Furthermore, he extended support for other terrorist organizations as well. In 2019, he took part in the All Parties Kashmir Solidarity Conference that was held in Islamabad. According to a report in Catch News, he shared the stage with Fazlur Rehman Khalil, founder of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM). Khalil was designated a terrorist by the US State Department in 1997. He was named as Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2014.
Khan is also a vocal supporter of the South Asian Islamist movement Jamaat-e-Islami. The article in meforum.org tells how the killing squads of this organization had worked hand-in-hand with the Pakistani military to carry out the genocide of Bangladeshis in 1971. In 2016, Motiur Rahman Nizami, leader of its Bangladesh chapter was hanged by the Bangladeshi government for his role in cases involving rape and genocide in 1971. On Khan’s official website, experts of his speeches have been published where he gave “paid tributes to Jamaat Islami Pakistan for playing an active role in Pakistan and Azad (sic) Jammu and Kashmir.”
Khan also extended support for Aafia Siddiqui, alias Lady Al-Qaeda.
Khan’s name has been linked to IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation that is a Turkish intelligence linked charity. The meforum.org article further states this organization has been accused of supplying weapons to al-Qaeda’s Jihadist groups in Libya and Syria. It is also accused of holding operations in Kashmir. IHH has been designated as a terrorist organization in Germany, Israel and the Netherlands.
Another extremist charity organization that Khan has extended support to is Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD). This organization is an American proxy of Jamaat-e-Islami. In 2017, HHRD partnered with the terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba. HHRD is accused of providing funds to Al-Khidmat Foundation, which is linked to Kashmiri terrorist organization Hizbul Mujahideen.
In 2019, Pakistani PM Imran Khan called for lobbying against India during a conference organized by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Notably, in 2018, ISNA’s branch was suspended in Canada after the organization transferred CAD 1,36,000 to Kashmir that reportedly went in the hands of Hizbul Mujahideen.
Since Imran Khan’s speech, US-based Pakistani-regime-linked lobbying groups and Islamist organizations have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on lobbying against Narendra Modi-led Indian government. Masood Khan has not only extended support for these lobbying groups but also stood by terrorist operatives like Yasin Malik and Shabir Shah and Jihadist leaders like late Syed Ali Geelani.
Pakistan’s overt support to Islamic terrorist organisations has been laid bare after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The appointment of Masood as Pakistan’s ambassador to the USA is another blatant display of the Islamic regime’s attempts to mainstream Jihadist ideologies and co-opt terrorist supporters.
Also, Pakistan calls the POK as ‘Azad Kashmir’, but the so-called Prime Ministers and Presidents of this ‘Azad Kashmir’ are nothing but puppets of Pakistan who just follow Islamabad’s orders. Their call for ‘independence’ in Jammu and Kashmir is nothing but an attempt to bring the entire region under Pakistan’s control.
