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By Iftikhar Ali
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 26 (APP):In the wake of “brutal surge” in violence against children in 2024, Pakistan told the UN Security Council that youths living under foreign occupation are particularly vulnerable to widespread abuses, and called for steps to ensure their safety and protection.
Speaking in the 15-member Council’s debate on ‘Children and Armed Conflict’, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said that record high child rights violations were leaving “countless young lives maimed, starved, burned, frozen to death, or weakened by severe malnutrition.”
In this regard, he drew attention to, among others hotspots, the suffering of children in war-shattered Gaza and Indian-occupied Kashmir.
“The Security Council has the solemn responsibility to address this disturbing state of affairs, ensure the protection of children and prevent their suffering, and ensure accountability of the perpetrators without any discrimination or political considerations.”
At the outset, the Pakistani envoy echoes the deep concern expressed in the UN Secretary General’s latest report, which details 41,370 verified grave violations against children in 2024, representing a shocking 25% increase compared to the previous year.
“This crisis is being felt with harrowing intensity in some parts of the world embroiled in devastating armed conflicts,” the Pakistani envoy said, regretting that children continue to bear the cost of war.
Ambassador Asim Iftikhar pointed out that it took the killing of thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza for the situation to be included in the last year’s report.
And while welcoming this year’s removal of references to Pakistan as a situation of concern — “a long-overdue correction” — the Pakistani envoy expressed regret that the previously documented plight of children in the Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir was omitted without justification.
“Generations of Kashmiri children have been condemned to a life of fear, violence, and repression under foreign occupation,” he said, noting heir plight has worsened after India’s illegal measures of 5 August 2019.
“We strongly urge continued reporting on the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, where human rights violations against children are, tragically, routine and continuing.”
Referring to the recent Indian aggression of 6–7 May 2025 against Pakistan, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar said that civilian areas were deliberately targeted, resulting in the martyrdom of 15 children in blatant contravention of the UN Charter and international humanitarian law.
Pakistan, he said, calls for a thorough investigation of these grave violations against children and their inclusion in the forthcoming CAAC (Children and Armed Conflict) report.
Reacting to Ambassador Asim Iftikhar’s sharp words, Indian Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish, while repeating New Delhi’s usual allegations, claimed that Pakistan was a promoter of terrorism and was also involved in the recent attack against civilians in. Pahalgam.
He also claimed that Kashmir was an integral and inalienable part of India, and will always remain so.
Pakistani delegate Rabia Ijaz hit back immediately, accusing him of “distortion and denial” and a desperate and futile attempt to mask India’s crimes and culpability.
Exercising her right of reply, Ms. Ijaz, a second secretary in the Pakistan Mission to the UN, said, “While hurling baseless accusations, India conveniently forgets its abysmal record of grave violations against children in occupied Kashmir — violations confirmed by the Secretary General’s annual reports and various human rights organizations.
“The tragedy of Kashmiri children growing up amid terror, trauma and repression is well known, a reality India cannot obscure with its patently false narratives.”
The Pakistani delegate also accused India of sponsoring terrorism and assassinations in Pakistan and across the globe, asserting that “our children have been brutalized by terrorist attacks that bear India’s fingerprints.” The Army Public School massacre of 2014 claimed the lives of over 130 innocent children. Last month, a savage attack on a school bus in Khuzdar, Balochistan, claimed the lives of a number of innocent school going children and left dozens injured.
“We have shared concrete evidence regarding terrorist outfits like the TTP and BLA — responsible for such atrocities — being sponsored and financed by India,” she said.
Contrary to its claim, Ms.Ijaz said India’s systematic suppression of the people of Indian occupied Kashmir including their inalienable right to self-determination, was not its internal matter.
“Jammu and Kashmir never was, nor is a so-called ‘integral’ part of India; it is an internationally recognized disputed territory under India’s forcible occupation. UN documents including maps, and several resolutions of the Security Council on Jammu and Kashmir, that India continues to defy, attested to this reality.
“We call upon India to end its state sponsored terrorism, cease its oppression of Kashmiris and persecution of minorities, comply with its obligations under international law, the UN Charter and bilateral treaties, and engage in meaningful dialogue for the peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.”