ISLAMABAD - Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi yesterday said that Pakistan will not allow India to impose its will in Held Kashmir.
Speaking to The Nation, Foreign Minister Qureshi said Islamabad had intensified efforts to expose India at all forums.
“India’s aggression cannot go on forever. We will soon see a Kashmir free from India. Kashmir is our jugular vein,” he said on the eve of the Kashmir Solidarity Day.
The FM said the government will take up the issue at all forums to expose India’s brutalities in Occupied Kashmir.
He said India had already been exposed before the world as independent organisations had unveiled its terror links.
“India’s state-sponsored terrorism stands exposed. The world supports Pakistan’s point of view now,” he maintained.
Separately, in a message on Kashmir Solidarity Day, FM Qureshi reaffirmed Pakistan’s unflinching solidarity with the Kashmiris in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
“The entire Pakistani nation stands with them in their valiant struggle to secure their inalienable right to self-determination. For 18 months now, IIOJK is under continuous Indian military siege, with Kashmiris virtually caged in their own houses, reeling under communications blockade, and facing severe restrictions on the media,” he said.
The FM added: “Their political leadership continues to be incarcerated. Under the suffocating military siege and in the face of ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian army has continued cordon-and-search operations, staged fake “encounters”, and indulged in a killing spree of Kashmiri youth in IIOJK -- thus further accentuating the grave humanitarian tragedy there.”
Following the extremist “Hindutva” ideology, the RSS-BJP regime has also embarked on a design to change the demographic structure of the occupied territory and obliterate the distinct Kashmiri identity. Apart from new domicile and property laws, the rules changing the official status of Urdu language are all part of this sinister campaign, he said.
The international media, UN Secretary General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, World Parliaments, Human Rights and Civil Society organizations have highlighted the grave human rights violations in IIOJK -- including detentions without trial, use of pellet guns, and extra-judicial killings, FM Qureshi said.
The international community must continue to act in support of the fundamental freedoms and basic human rights of the Kashmiris and urge India to allow the UN Fact Finding Mission to investigate the grave human rights violations in IIOJK. India must allow the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan unhindered access to carry out its mandate.
“If India has nothing to hide, it must allow international media and civil society to visit and report on the human rights situation in IIOJK,” he said.
Pakistan, he said, “reiterates its call on the international community to hold India accountable for its violations of human rights and serious crimes against the Kashmiri people. Pakistan also reaffirms full support for its Kashmiri brothers and sisters. This solidarity will continue until the Kashmiris achieve their inalienable right to self-determination as enshrined in the UN Charter and relevant UN Security Council Resolutions. This is the only course to durable peace, security and development in South Asia.”
Pakistan’s Embassies, the FM said, had been directed to highlight the issue as we have launched a countrywide Kashmir campaign to unmask India. “The issue will be taken up at all the bilateral and multilateral interactions. We have never ignored Kashmir in any high-level meeting,” he said.
The FM said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was spearheading the Kashmir campaign. “The PM is a great ambassador of Kashmir. We have been focussing on Kashmir and we will intensify these efforts,” he added.
He reminded that the Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control and across the world observed Indian Republic Day as Black Day, in protest against India’s continued denial of their right to self-determination.
Defence analyst Brigadier(Retd) Said Nazir said Kashmir and Palestine are the longest outstanding issues on UN Charter and it was unfortunate that both the Muslim countries are the victims of hegemonistic thoughts of India and Israel but the world is silent over it.
As far as the Kashmir issue is concerned, Narendra Modi has crossed all the limits of human rights violations and violations of international laws, he said.
Defence analyst Lt. General(Retd) Naeem Khalid Lodhi said only a few days back, the UN Secretary General once again offered to facilitate the dialogue process between Pakistan and India.
“But as India is big consumer market and strategic alliance, the world is hesitant to impose pressure on India to review its aggressive policies. Pakistan on its end at diplomatic level did a great job in exposing cruel Indian face in front of the world,” he said.
The world, he said, must be urged to take notice as India is using Afghan soil for its nefarious designs against Pakistan. “Keeping in view the international politics, we must not be hopeful from the world that it will impose any sort of pressure on India. United Nations being an important forum can play its role to implement its own resolutions on Kashmir issues,” he added.
International relations expert Dr Huma Baqai said Pakistan had effectively highlighted the Kashmir issue at all international forums. Kashmiris are under siege since the illegal action taken by India on August 5, 2019.
“Now, Kashmir has become the largest open prison on the face of the earth. The plight of Kashmiris was discussed at various international forums, including the British Parliament where the Labour MPs vociferously criticized the treatment meted out to Kashmiris. Global shaming of India over Kashmir has made this issue alive and burning in the world. We need to be more proactive in order to keep building pressure on New Delhi. Kashmir is a flashpoint between India, Pakistan, and China,” she said.