Reaffirming Pakistan’s abiding commitment to the Kashmir cause, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday again urged the international community, including the United Nations , Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), human rights organisations and therefore the global media, to carry India in charge of killing innocent Kashmiris and denying their right to self-determination.
“We will still extend all possible assistance to Kashmiris till the realisation of their inalienable right to self-determination and a just resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UNSC resolutions and therefore the wishes of the Kashmiri people,” he said in his message on Youm-i-Istehsal (Day of Exploitation) observed throughout the country to mark the second anniversary of annexation of occupied Kashmir by India.
A number of events were arranged altogether major cities, including the federal capital, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) to precise solidarity with the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) within the wake of atrocities being committed by the occupation forces, especially after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A.
“Today marks two years since India’s illegal and unilateral actions of August 5, 2019, in IIOJK,” the prime minister said, adding that these actions were followed by unprecedented military siege, and restrictions on fundamental rights and freedom of the Kashmiri people to perpetuate Indian occupation within the occupied territory. “Yet, India has did not break the desire of Kashmiri people,” he added.
Mr Khan acknowledged that the Kashmiris faced unabated extra-judicial killings, custodial tortures and deaths, arbitrary detentions, burning and looting of homes to inflict collective punishment, and other worst sorts of human rights abuses.
“India’s illegal and unilateral actions of August 5, 2019, and subsequent measures, particularly concerning domicile rules and land ownership laws, are aimed toward changing the demographic structure of IIOJK and converting the Kashmiris into a minority in their own land,” he added.
The prime minister said those measures were in blatant violation of the law of nations , including the UN Charter, Security Council resolutions and therefore the 4th Geneva Convention . “Pakistan, the Kashmiris and therefore the international community forcefully rejected these steps,” he said.
According to Mr Khan, the criticism and censure of India’s illegal actions in IIOJK by variety of international organisations, including the UN, OHCHR and European Parliament, international media, various human rights experts and human rights organisations, were well documented.
“All the unilateral and illegal actions taken by India in IIOJK, from the outset, the measures initiated on and after August 5, 2019, and any additional unilateral changes that India may introduce within the future, are violations of law of nations …. and ipso facto null and void,” the prime minister maintained.
OIC delegation
During a gathering with a visiting delegation of the OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) led by Dr Saeed Al-Ghufli, the prime minister said things in Jammu and Kashmir and in Palestine was a “huge injustice of history” and it had been important for the OIC and therefore the world to require steps to correct it.
The IPHRC delegation’s meeting with the prime minister was a big development because it coincided with the completion of two years of India’s illegal and unilateral actions of Aug 5, 2019. The delegation is on a visit to Islamabad and AJK in compliance with the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers’ mandate to assess the deteriorating human rights situation in IIOJK.
The prime minister expressed grave concern over the egregious violations of human rights in IIOJK which had assumed alarming proportions during the last two years.
Mr Khan said the people of IIOJK, demanding their inalienable right to self-determination promised to them under numerous UNSC resolutions, were being brazenly brutalised, extra-judicially killed, injured, maimed, tortured and arbitrarily detained.
The indiscriminate use of pallet guns had resulted within the mass blinding of Kashmiri youth. However, despite using every single tool of oppression, PM Khan said, India had did not break the desire of the Kashmiri people.
Dilating upon the Indian regime’s “Hindutva” ideology, he emphasised that Kashmiri Muslims were being targeted so as to suppress their demand for freedom from Indian occupation and repression. He recalled that as an independent expert body, the IPHRC’s views were supported facts and grim realities existing on the bottom .
The prime minister reiterated the urgent need for the reversal of all illegal and unilateral steps taken by India on and after Aug 5, 2019, along side an instantaneous end to the human rights violations in IIOJK. He also spoke about rising Islamophobia and stressed the necessity for the Ummah to form collective endeavours to counter this scourge.
Briefing the OIC delegation, secretary of state Shah Mahmood Qureshi said torture, rape and sexual violence were employed as instruments of suppression and pellet guns were indiscriminately used, leading to death, injuries and blinding of the Kashmiris.
“India’s occupation forces enjoy complete impunity under draconian laws like Public Safety Act, soldiers Special Powers Act and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Several political leaders, activists, human rights defenders and journalists remain incarcerated even during the pandemic,” he said.
Earlier in his special message on the occasion, Mr Qureshi said Pakistan wouldn’t relent in its support until the Kashmiris realise their legitimate right to self-determination. “We express complete solidarity with the people of IIOJK and assure our Kashmiri brothers and sisters that the govt and other people of Pakistan stand united with them,” he added.
The secretary of state said the Jammu and Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan had been on the UNSC agenda since 1948. “It remains an internationally recognised dispute, the answer of which is firmly anchored within the relevant UNSC resolutions in accordance with UN Charter and therefore the wishes of the people of Kashmir,” he said.
‘Inhuman military siege’
Chief of the military Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Bajwa, during a statement released by the ISPR, said that crises in occupied Kashmir resulting from India’s highhanded and unlawful tactics were threatening regional peace.
“Continuation of inhuman military siege, machinations to bring demographic changes and gross violations of human rights and international laws are perpetuating humanitarian and security crises in IIOJK that imperil regional security,” said the COAS.
“Resolution of Kashmir dispute as per UN resolutions and aspirations of Kashmiri people is imperative for enduring peace and stability within the region,” Gen Bajwa emphasised.
FO reaction
When Pakistan has been warning that the extremely volatile situation in occupied Kashmir can magnify anytime with serious consequences for the whole region, India is saying normalcy in held Kashmir while flaunting its controversial move as a hit .
“Jammu and Kashmir has seen real democracy, development, good governance and empowerment within the last two years. As a result, India’s unity and integrity has been immeasurably strengthened. #NewJammuKashmir,” Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar tweeted.
Responding to Jaishankar’s tweet, ministry spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhry said that contrary to Indian foreign minister’s claims, “the international community has seen the foremost unprecedented military siege, gross and systematic human rights violations, and curbs on all fundamental rights and freedoms of the Kashmiri people in IIOJK.”
President Dr Arif Alvi led the Kashmir solidarity rally which originated from the ministry and culminated at the Parliament House. The rally was also joined by Foreign Minister Qureshi, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid, Science and Technology Minister Shibli Faraz, parliamentarians and an outsized number of individuals from all walks of life.
Addressing the participants of the rally, the president said Pakistan wouldn’t hold talks with India unless it rescinded its illegal and unilateral actions of Aug 5, 2019. “This may be a clear narrative of Pakistan until India restores Articles 370 and 35-A of its Constitution that ensures the special status of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
The participants of the rally chanted slogans demanding the proper for Kashmiris and waved the Pakistani and Kashmiri flags.
Addressing a seminar jointly organised by the Human Security Institute and therefore the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir in Islamabad, chairman of the committee Shehryar Afridi said issuance of around four million new domiciles to non-Kashmiri Hindus by the illegal occupational regime had totally exposed the Indian nefarious designs aimed toward turning the Muslim-majority state of Kashmir into a Muslim-minority region.
Talking to reporters after planting a tree within the name of well-known Hurriyat leader Ashraf Sahrai within the lawn of Parliament House building, Mr Afridi said the Kashmir Premier League would be held from Transfiguration to showcase the talent of Kashmiri youth.
