Mubashar Naqvi
Muzaffarabad
Prime Minister Imran Khan slammed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday, saying that he is ‘trapped’ and that Kashmiris will be free soon from India’s reign of terror.
“It looks as if all of you, from the inside, are a bit feeling like you have lost,” he told parliamentarians at the Azad Kashmir assembly after they made speeches before the prime minister. “I, on the other hand, believe that Kashmiris are going through an era [of suffering] which, God willing, will end in victory for them,” he added.
PM Imran said that Modi had made a huge mistake on August 5 last year. He said that the Indian prime minister was afraid of revoking Article 370 of the Indian constitution earlier but after winning the elections by appeasing his extremist Hindutva base, Modi took the disastrous step.
“His assumed that Pakistan would stay silent as we were trying for friendship [with India],” he said. “When India was using pellet guns in Kashmir, before our government, no one was talking about it. Neither was Pakistan doing anything and neither did the UN,” he added, stating that New Delhi thought Islamabad would remain silent again.
PM Imran said that the main reason behind India’s August 5 move was pride. He said that Modi thought the world would back India and stay silent as he assumed that the west wanted to use India as a counterforce to China.
Highlighting another wrong assumption of the Modi government, the prime minister said that India thought after it would unleash its RSS thugs in the occupied territory and resort to state terrorism, the Kashmiris would surrender.
“Let me tell you, nations have made huge blunders in the past based on proud decisions,” he said. The prime minister said that many world leaders and countries around the world didn’t even know what was going on in occupied Kashmir.
“At first, the New York Times wouldn’t let me write on the issue for them,” he said. “I went there and told the NYT board over there [to make them understand],” he added. He said that the western media had criticised India on
such a large scale for the first time, in the past year ever since it undertook the August 5 move. “Previously, after Bangladesh was created, the world started viewing India in a positive light and not us,” he said, adding that the situation had now changed.
Criticising Modi for the massacre in Gujarat, Imran said that Modi could not go to western countries such as the UK and US as he was banned due to his extremist actions.
“No one can become a leader like this, after committing the massacre of thousands of Muslims,” he said, adding that Modi’s actions in occupied Kashmir had attracted the world’s attention towards it.
“Today, Narendra Modi has been exposed in the world,” he said. “And now, the world is watching Kashmir. They are committing injustices there, no doubt but not according to the extent they had planned,” he added.
The prime minister credited his government for raising the voice for Kashmir in front of the world. He said that it was due to his government’s efforts that the Kashmir issue was highlighted and now, the world was taking notice of it.
The premier said that he had met Kashmiri leader Farooq Abdullah 10-15 years ago during a conference and he had always spoken about talks with India. “Now, I see even he is saying that Quaid-e-Azam was right [about partition with India],” he said.
“As far as my analysis is concerned, India is entering a ‘blind alley’,” he said. “I assure you, we will highlight this issue at every forum,” he added.
PM Imran said that his government could not properly implement his plan as there was a ‘march’ (referring to the JUI-F’s Azadi dharna] and the coronavirus problem which had caused distractions.
Speaking about Pakistan’s first political map, Imran said Pakistan needed to react and tell the world that this was a disputed territory, more so after India claimed Gilgit-Baltistan and other territories were part of its federation.
He announced that Pakistan will honour Syed Ali Geelani with the Nishan-e-Pakistan award. The premier described him as a “big leader” of not only Kashmir but also of the region.
