On Black Day, Imran urges world to stop rights violations in occupied Kashmir
Prime Minister Imran Khan Wednesday urged the global community to play its role in exerting pressure on India to bring an end to the rights violations in occupied Jammu and Kashmir region.
In a message on the occasion of Black Day, the prime minister said the world should help secure the right of the people of Kashmir to determine their own future in line with UN Security Council resolutions.
Pakistan and people living on either side of the Line of Control (LOC) celebrate October 27 as Black Day to recount, and inform the world, how India had invaded the princely state in 1947.
Khan said: “We stand united in support of the Kashmiris’ inalienable right to self-determination.”
He said this day was also to remember the innumerable sacrifices rendered by the people of Kashmir while resisting the inhuman occupation of India. The occupation was meant to suppress the just aspirations of Kashmiris for determining their future, he noted.
The prime minister said despite the oppression and cruelty of Indian forces for the last seven decades, the people of Kashmir were determined to secure freedom. “We salute the courage and determination of Kashmiris including women and children.”
The people of Kashmir are a source of inspiration for the freedomloving people of the rest of the world, he said, adding the longstanding dispute was on the agenda of the UN Security Council agenda since 1948.
The prime minister said after accepting the resolutions of the Security Council and making promises with the world body, Pakistan, the international community and people of Jammu and Kashmir, on August 5, 2019, India unilaterally took an action which was a violation and disrespect of international law and was an effort to undermine the resolutions and aspirations of the people of Kashmir.
Unfortunately, in today’s India, the ideology of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was prevalent and in its extremist ideology there was no place for Muslims and other minorities, he observed.
He said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was using oppressive schemes to suppress the voice of the people of Kashmir and deny them the right to self-determination.
India on August 5, 2019, took the illegal actions and has, for the last 815 days, been keeping the people of Kashmir under military siege while resorting to a complete media blackout and other restrictions, he explained.
Khan said fake encounters, rape and severe violations of human rights and extrajudicial killings were the unspeakable crimes against the Kashmiris.
The Indian government introduced the laws of domicile to make demographic changes in the held Kashmir region which showed the intention of India to change the ground reality in an internationally recognized dispute, he commented. The prime minister said in the last two years, Pakistan has strongly opposed the illegal measures of India and openly supported the rights of oppressed people of Kashmir.
Pakistan raised the issue of Kashmir at all the forums including the United Nations, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and during the bilateral meetings with the world leaders. It was worth mentioning that the dispute of Jammu and Kashmir was considered in the Security Council of the United Nations for the first time in the last 55 years, he pointed out.
He said the Security Council took up the issue of Kashmir three times and rejected the claim based on lies that Kashmir was an internal matter of India.
Today, the United Nations and all international organisations had increased their condemnation of Indian measures in Kashmir.
“But this is not enough as a dossier released by Pakistan last month providing irrefutable evidence of inhuman behaviour of India, should be exposed before the world.”
He said it was the responsibility of the Security Council to ensure the implementation of its resolutions on Kashmir so that the people of Kashmir could get their right to self-determination.
The just resolution of the dispute according to the UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the people of Kashmir was imperative for sustainable peace and stability in South Asia, he added.
‘resolving dispute only Path to Peace’:
In his address, President Dr Arif Alvi said the peaceful resolution of the dispute in accordance with the relevant UNSC resolutions and wishes of the people of Kashmir was the “only way to ensure peace in the region”.
In his message, the president said contrary to Indian claims, Jammu and Kashmir region was an internationally recognised dispute that had been on the agenda of the Security Council for over seven decades.
He said Pakistan called upon the international community to take practical steps to hold India accountable for its gross and systematic human rights violations in Kashmir.
He said 74 years ago on October 27, India deployed troops to Srinagar in an unlawful intervention and illegally occupied the state.
“The reign of terror and oppression that started on that day continues unabated,” he said.
President Alvi said successive Indian governments during the course of seven decades had subjected the people of Kashmir to worst forms of state-terrorism. “The fascist regime of BJP, under the Hindutva ideology, has started persecuting Muslims and other minority communities,” he said.
Moreover, he said, India took illegal and unilateral actions on August 5 two years ago to deprive the Kashmiri people of their economic, political and land rights and change the demography of the Kashmir region.
“Pakistan would not accept these illegal actions as they are in clear violation of several UNSC resolutions and the international law,” he said.
The president said India’s use of state-terrorism against people of Kashmir including extra-judicial killings, fake encounters, cordon-and-search operations, custodial torture, enforced disappearances, incarceration of local leadership, use of pellet guns, and destruction of houses had not succeeded in breaking the will of the people of Kashmir.
“The people of Kashmir remain steadfast and have written with their blood a glorious chapter of commitment, courage and sacrifice in the annals of history,” he said.
He said Pakistan pays tribute to the resilience and the indomitable spirit of the brave people of Kashmir. “India’s illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir will definitely come to an end,” he said.
President Alvi said Pakistan would continue to stand with our Kashmir brothers and sisters in their just struggle for self-determination in accordance with the relevant UNSC resolutions.