TEHRAN – The chargé d’affaires of Pakistan in Iran has thanked the Supreme Leader and Iranian people for the assistance they had provided to his countrymen during the flood crisis.

“Everybody appreciated Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s Eid al-Fitr statement about Pakistan’s flood victims,” Dr. Aman Rashid stated on Wednesday at a Kashmir Day gathering in Tehran.
“I believe it was Ayatollah Khamenei’s appeal to the Iranian nation that generated a good amount of funds for the Pakistani people affected by country’s worst floods,” he added.
During his Eid al-Fitr address Ayatollah Khamenei called the devastating floods in Pakistan, which have left about 21 million homeless, the most urgent issue of the Islamic world and called for an immediate humanitarian assistance to Pakistan by Muslim nations and governments including Iran.
Seven of the 21 million Pakistanis affected by the floods are still without shelter, the United Nation’s Pakistan Office reported this week. And an estimated 14 million continue to need urgent humanitarian assistance.
A function was held at the Embassy of Pakistan in Tehran on the occasion of Kashmir Black Day, which marked the 63rd anniversary of the Indian occupation of Jammu and Kashmir.
In his address to the gathering, Dr. Rashid also spoke of the suppression of the Kashmiri people at the hands of the Indian occupation forces and stated that over the past 21 years, more than 93,000 Kashmiri men, women, and children have laid down their lives for the cause of freedom.
Emphasizing the need to find a solution to the Kashmir dispute, he said that Pakistan will continue to stand with the Kashmiri people in their just struggle to acquire their right to self-determination.
Dr. Rashid expressed appreciation for the fact that Iranian intellectuals stand in solidarity with the struggle of the Kashmiri people and observed that they are not alone because the Kashmiris enjoy the support of the entire Muslim world.
He also thanked the government and people of the Islamic Republic of Iran for their support for the just struggle of the Kashmiri people.
Lasting peace in the region can only be established by resolving the core dispute of Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with the aspirations of the people of Kashmir, he added.
Iranian scholars Dr. Moustafvi Sabazbari, Dr. Reza Shahbani, Dr. Mohammad Hossein Tasbehi and Dr. Abdul Rafi Haqiqat also spoke about the cultural links between Iran and Kashmir, highlighting the historical background of the Kashmir dispute. They asked the international community to pressure the Indian government to give the Kashmiri people their right to self-determination.
Veteran Iranian journalist and famous poet Mr. Nasir Yamin Mardookhi Kordastani recited a poem focusing on the sufferings of the Kashmiri people at the hands of the Indian occupation forces.
Iranian film producer Salim Ghafouri, who visited Indian-occupied Kashmir and Azad Kashmir to film a documentary on the plight of the Kashmiri people, spoke about his observations. He stated that there are major human rights violations being committed against the Kashmiri people at the hands of the Indian occupation forces.
An excerpt of Ghafouri’s documentary, which is entitled “Kashmir: The Forgotten Paradise”, was also screened at the event. The film highlights the Kashmir issue and the suffering of the Kashmiri people.
Photo: Dr. Aman Rashid (Photo by Abbass Takin)