ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has called on the United Nations (UN) to urgently resolve the Kashmir dispute in a bid to halt Indian atrocities in the disputed territory and dispel a threat to regional and global peace and security.
“Peace and security must remain at the core of the functions of the United Nations,” Ambassador Munir Akram told the UN General Assembly while commenting on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ report on the organisation’s work.
He said, “We urge the Security Council and the secretary general to exercise their considerable authority to promote an early and peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and to end the Indian reign of terror against the Kashmiri people.”
The Ambassador further said the UN and the secretary general could “do much more” to address “peace and security threats by fully using the authority provided by the United Nations Charter, such as in Article 99, and by taking action in the General Assembly if the Security Council is unable to do so”.
On August 5, 2019, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had revoked occupied Kashmir’s special status by repealing Article 370 of the constitution. The move allowed people from the rest of India to have the right to acquire property in IoK and settle there permanently.
Kashmiris, international organisations and critics of India’s Hindu nationalist-led government see the move as an attempt to dilute the demographics of Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu settlers.
Detailing India’s “extensive illegal actions”, Ambassador Akram cited the rise of racial and religious hate and violence, with Islamophobia among its gravest manifestations, notably as characterised by lynching and calls for genocide of Muslims in India.
“The worst manifestation of Islamophobia is the officially-inspired campaign of Hindutva adherents in India against Muslims,” he said. So far, the Pakistan envoy added, there had been no accountability for India’s crimes.
“Draconian Indian laws provide complete impunity to the 900,000 troops India had deployed in occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” he said, condemning the rising “harassment, illegal arrests and registration of fake criminal cases” against journalists and civil society activists.
Ambassador Akram also drew attention towards the recent warning by Dr Gregory Stanton, head of the Genocide Watch — a global organisation dedicated to the prevention of genocide — of a genocide against Muslims in India.
“We call on the secretary general and the United Nations to take decisive steps to combat Islamophobia and to prevent the danger of genocide against the Muslims of India,” Ambassador Akram said.
