United Nations
Pakistan’s Consulate in New York organized a special event to observe Kashmir Black Day on Wednesday, with Ambassador Munir Akram urging a youthful audience to get involved in building public opinion in support Kashmiris’ struggle for their right to self-determination.
Almost half of the gathering at the event, which marks the anniversary of India’s massive invasion and occupation of Kashmir on 27 October 1947, were Pakistani-American students from colleges in New York.
Addressing the young people, Ambassador Akram, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, asked them to help create awareness among people in the US about the Kashmir dispute, highlighting the gross human rights abuses by Indian troops in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
“This is a democratic country and its leaders are responsive to the pressures from their constituents.”
On the diplomatic front, he said, Pakistan was doing all it can to enable Kashmiri people to exercise their right to self-determination through a UN-supervised plebiscite in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions.
At the UN, he said, as a result of Pakistan’s efforts, the Security Council has met thrice on Kashmir since 2019 when India annexed IIOJK.
The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, made a strong statement upholding UN Security Council resolutions to resolve the dispute over Kashmir, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued two reports denouncing rights abuses in Kashmir and calling for investigation.
Pakistan will continue to press ahead to build up international press pressure on India to resolve the decades-old dispute, he said, adding that Islamabad will always standby the people of Jammu and Kashmir.—KMS
