NEW YORK: Pakistan will not “rest or relent” until the Kashmiri people have realized their right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions, Ambassador Munir Akram said.
Speaking in a webinar commemorating Kashmir Solidarity Day, the Pakistani envoy said that the Kashmir dispute was the unfinished agenda of self-determination in the South Asian sub-continent. He reminded that the day reaffirms unflinching support to Kashmiris waging a heroic and epic struggle against India’s barbaric occupation for more than seven decades and salutes them for their valiant struggle and exemplary sacrifices.
“We will continue to utilize every opportunity to advocate and promote the just Kashmiri struggle for self-determination and to expose India’s cruel oppression and naked occupation of Jammu and Kashmir,” the Pakistani envoy said.
Ambassador Akram said Pakistan would continue to demand from India to reverse its unilateral and illegal measures instituted since 5th August 2019; end oppression and human rights violations and reverse the demographic changes in the occupied territory.
“Prime Minister Imran Khan’s strong advocacy of the rights of Kashmiris has revived global recognition of India’s grave and human rights violations and crimes in occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” Ambassador Akram said, adding that the world was now aware that a just resolution of Kashmir dispute was essential for durable peace and security in South Asia.
The Security Council, he pointed out, in its several resolutions reaffirmed right of self-determination of the Kashmiris and for its exercise, outlined the method of fair and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices.
“Having accepted the principle of self-determination, India had initially through obfuscation and deceit and later through oppression and force, prevented the holding of a UN supervised plebiscite in violation of a series of UNSC resolutions.”
“On 5th August 2019, India proceeded through unilateral and illegal measures to resort to an attempt at outright annexation of occupied Jammu and Kashmir in what India’s extremist rulers have themselves ominously called a ‘Final Solution’ for Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
“The attempts to bring a demographic change in the occupied territory constituted flagrant violations of the UN Charter, the relevant UNSC resolutions and international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention,” he added.
During the last two years, Ambassador Akram said India imprisoned the entire Kashmiri political leadership; illegally detained 15,000 Kashmiri youth; tortured and extra-judicially killed hundreds of them; used rape as a weapon of war; put down peaceful protests violently, blinding young children with pellet guns; imposed collective punishments by demolishing and burning entire neighbourhoods and villages and curtailed the freedom of religion and expression.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), he said, had also remained engaged with the human rights situation in Kashmir and called for the release of human rights defenders and other political prisoners. International media and human rights organisations had also condemned the worsening human rights situation including in the recent Human Rights Watch’s report released in January 2022.
The Hindutva-led government of India blatantly continued to deny access to the occupied territory. In September 2021, he said the Pakistani government also released a dossier containing evidence on the entire range of gross, systematic and widespread violations of human rights perpetrated by Indian forces.
The Pakistani envoy said the Hindutva ideology remains the driving force behind the pattern of targeted violence against Muslims. Recent social media videos showing Hindutva religious leaders in India calling for genocide against Muslims had sparked global outrage and prompted demands for action.
Noticing the dangerous trend, he said, Professor Gregory Stanton, the founder of Genocide Watch, warned in unambiguous words that genocide of Muslims could very well happen in India during a congressional briefing in the United States last month.
The organiaation issued a similar alert about possible atrocity crimes in Kashmir. Recently, Stoke White had issued a report based on more than 2,000 testimonies taken between 2020 and 2021 and had uncovered war crimes perpetrated by the Indian occupation forces. The UN Secretary-General had re-affirmed that the UN’s position on Jammu and Kashmir is based on the UN Charter and the resolutions of the Security Council, he noted.
The seminar’s guests included Azerbaijan Ambassador Yashar Aliyev, Ms Amina Kader, who represented the OIC Observer Mission to the UN, Deputy Permanent Representative of Turkey, Oncu Keceli, and Deputy Permanent Representative of Saudi Arabia, Mohamed Alateek.
They voiced their solidarity with the Kashmiri people for their inalienable right to self-determination and called for a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute. Among the panelists were Kashmiri activists Dr Imtiaz Khan, Farhan Chak, Dr Rabia Akhtar, Muzammil Ayyub Thakur, Shaista Safi and British historian Victoria Schofield.
