PM asks world to see Kashmir’s humanitarian crisis beyond business interests

PM asks world to see Kashmir's humanitarian crisis beyond business interests

ISLAMABAD, Aug 30 (APP):Fearing a blood bath in Kashmir, Prime Minister Imran Khan has called upon the international community not to ignore the flared-up situation in the Occupied Valley lest the dispute between the nuclear-armed Pakistan and India triggers a nuclear war.

“If the world does nothing to stop the Indian assault on Kashmir and its people, two nuclear-armed states will get ever closer to a direct military confrontation,” the prime minister wrote in an article published in New York Times on Friday.

The article titled ‘The world can’t ignore Kashmir. We are all in danger’ coincided with the observance of ‘Kashmir Hour’ as the entire Pakistani nation on Friday, on the call of Prime Minister Imran Khan, came out of their homes and workplaces on 12 noon in solidarity with the oppressed Kashmiris.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said the world needed to see the humanitarian crisis in Kashmir beyond trade and business interests and realize the looming nuclear danger.

“The World War II happened because of appeasement at Munich. A similar threat looms over the world again, but this time under the nuclear shadow,” he wrote.

The prime minister recalled the nuclear threat by India’s defence minister who said that the future of India’s “no first use policy on nuclear weapons will depend on circumstances”.

He said a dialogue between Pakistan and India, along with Kashmiris as major stakeholders, was important to find a solution to end the decades-old sufferings of Kashmiri people.

However, Imran Khan made it clear that dialogue could only be possible if India reversed its illegal annexation of Kashmir. “A dialogue can start only when India reverses its illegal annexation of Kashmir, ends the curfew and lockdown, and withdraws its troops to the barracks,” he said.

The prime minister stressed that Pakistan and India had to move out of a zero-sum mindset to begin dialogue on Kashmir and mentioned that the right to self-determination was promised by the UN Security Council Resolutions and even by India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

The article explained in length the steps taken by Prime Minister Imran Khan for normalizing relations with India after assuming office in August last. These included writing letters thrice to Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to resolve all outstanding issues bilaterally, including the long-standing Kashmir dispute.

“Unfortunately, all my efforts to start a dialogue for peace, were rebuffed by India,” the prime minister said, recalling that India instead responded by blaming Pakistan
for its Pulwama’s terrorist incident.

The prime minister mentioned that on asking for evidence, India sent its fighter jets inside Pakistani territory, which were brought down by Pakistan Air Force and the captured Indian pilot was returned with no preconditions.

Imran Khan said Modi had mistaken Pakistan’s desire for peace in a nuclear neighborhood as appeasement.
“We were not simply up against a hostile government. We were up against a “New India,” which is governed by leaders and a party that are the products of the Hindu supremacist mother ship, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or the R.S.S,” he said, referring to the racist agenda of Modi’s political party.

He mentioned Modi’s inspiration of Nazism and anti-semitism, which he practiced during his tenure as the chief minister of Gujarat against the local Muslims.

The prime minister recalled that the United States had earlier denied a travel visa to Narendra Modi States under its International Religious Freedom Act — a list of visa denials that included associates of Slobodan Milosevic.

Imran Khan said Modi’s first term as prime minister had been marked by lynching of Muslims, Christians and Dalits by extremist Hindu mobs and in Indian-occupied Kashmir, state violence against defiant Kashmiris was enhanced including the use of pellet-firing shotguns.

He termed India’s ending of Kashmir’s special status as ‘most brazen and egregious move’, and said it was a violation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions on Kashmir and the Simla Agreement between India and Pakistan.

“Modi’s ‘New India’ chose to do this by imposing a military curfew in Kashmir, imprisoning its population in their homes and cutting off their phone, internet and television connections, rendering them without news of the world or their loved ones,” he said, adding that the matter needed the urgent attention of the world.

APP Services