Muhammad Zahid Rifat
PAKISTAN has quite emphatically reiterated that the government and the people are committed to standing by and supporting their Kashmiri brothers and sisters in their legitimate struggle for self-determination, the brave, courageous, determined and committed Kashmiri people will never submit to Indian forced occupation and oppression, their struggle is indigenous, they are indeed fighting for a just cause and laying down their lives generation after generation for more than seven decades to rid themselves of Indian occupation. This reiteration of Pakistan’s continued moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiris in their just struggle was made by Prime Minister Imran Khan in his virtual address to the UN General Assembly on September 25. This was his second address to the world body’s General Assembly in which he not only highlighted the Kashmir issue but also dilated on Islamophobia, Palestine, Afghanistan and called upon the international community to protect Kashmiris from impending genocide by India.
Touching upon different aspects of the lingering unresolved Kashmir issue, the Pakistani leader quite rightly told the international body in plain words that there will be no durable peace and stability in South Asia until the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is resolved on the basis of international legitimacy and that Kashmir has been rightly described as a nuclear flashpoint. It is a bitter historical fact that for over 72 years, India has illegally and forcibly occupied against the wishes of the Kashmiri people and in blatant violation of the resolutions of the UN Security Council and more so its own commitments to the people of the occupied disputed territory. It was on 5 August 2019, which has since been described as yet another darkest day in the history of the Kashmiris, India illegally and unilaterally tried to change the status of the occupied territory, deployed additional security forces raising the total number to about nine lakhs, imposed a total military siege on entire eight million people of the occupied territory, all Kashmiri political leaders were incarcerated, about 13000 Kashmiri youths were abducted and put into India jails without any intimation to their families and thousands tortured, a complete curfew was imposed in an unending manner accompanied by a total communications blackout.
Occupying Indian security forces continue to use brute force including pellet guns against peaceful protestors, imposing collective punishments including the destruction of entire neighbourhoods, committing extra-judicial murders of innocent young Kashmiris in fake encounters, refusing even to hand over their bodies to their families for burial and the Kashmiri media and those daring to raise their voice are being systematically harassed and intimidated through the use of draconian laws. PM Imran Khan urged the UN General Assembly to declare an “International Day to Combat Islamophobia”, build a coalition to fight this scourge which is splitting the humanity and the one country in the world where the state sponsors Islamophobia is India and the reason behind this is Rashtriya Sewak Sangh (RSS) which is quite unfortunately is ruling India today believing and executing that India is exclusively for Hindus and others are not equal citizens.
The Hindutva ideology , the UN General Assembly was told, is set to marginalize almost 300 million human beings including Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, this is unprecedented in history, does not augur well for the future of India itself as marginalization of human beings leads to their radicalization. Having said this and much more, the Pakistani leader went on to call upon the Security Country that it must prevent a disastrous conflict and secure the implementation of its own resolutions, which India persistently disobeying and not letting the Kashmiris to exercise their right of self-determination to decide their future themselves, as it had done in the case of East Timor, the Security Council has dilated upon the situation in Jammu and Kashmir three times in the past year and it must also take appropriate enforcement actions.
Needless to mention here that Pakistan has always called for a peaceful solution of the lingering unresolved Kashmir issue. To this end, India must rescind the unilateral and brutal measures it has instituted since 5 August 2019, end its military siege and other gross human rights violations and agree to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the people of the occupied territory Jammu and Kashmir.
India has all along been holding talks to resolve Kashmir dispute ensuring that no concrete offer is made or accepted and also been reluctant to what it says third party mediations to resolve the Kashmir issue. It is worth mentioning here that while saying no to all offers of mediation to resolve the lingering and burning Kashmir issue, India has more than twice in recent months had requested Moscow for mediation over Laddakh region between India and China and getting its military personnel released by the Chinese forces. What a duplicity, indeed. In the course of his virtual address, PM Imran Khan while dilating on another unresolved issue of the Muslim Ummah said that Palestine remains a festering wound, a just and lasting settlement is indispensable not only for the Middle East but actually the world over, illegal annexation of Palestinian territory, the building of illegal settlements and the imposition of inhuman living conditions on the Palestinian people especially in Gaza cannot bring peace to a troubled region.
He pointedly stated that Pakistan continues to support a two-state solution in line with the UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions within the internally agreed parameters and they are: pre-1967 borders and Al-Quds Al-Sharif as the Capital of a united, contiguous and independent state of Palestine. The address to the UN General Assembly by the Pakistani leader covered many domestic and international subjects including pandemic of Coronavirus and how Pakistan is fighting despite its limited resources and struggling national economy and ensuring that the resources-less people are not let die for want of food. This is not all. Other aspects of the Prime Minister of Pakistan’s address to the UN General Assembly will be dilated upon and discussed separately.
—The writer is Lahore-based Freelance Journalist, Columnist and retired Deputy Controller (News), Radio Pakistan, Islamabad.
