UNITED NATIONS, Oct 08 (APP): Pakistan has called on world community to demand that India halts its human rights abuses in occupied Kashmir, accepts international inquiry commission and agrees to implement UN Security Council resolutions guaranteeing self-determination to the Kashmiri people.
“Appeasement of this Indian government abets impunity, begets violence and threatens regional peace and security,” Ambassador Munir Akram told the General Assembly’s Third Committee, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural issues.
Speaking in a general debate, the Pakistani envoy underscored that the right of peoples to self-determination was the “bedrock” of of international relations.
“While the international community has continued to reaffirm the principle of self-determination, the free exercise of this right has been denied, so far, in certain cases, such as in Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine,” Ambassador Akram said.
In fact, he said the General Assembly Resolution 2649 (1970) declared that denial of the right of self-determination of peoples under colonial occupation or alien domination is a gross violation of the UN Charter and that such peoples have the right to struggle for the realization of their right “by all available means”.
“India has, by obfuscation and oppression, denied the right of self-determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for seven decades,” the Pakistani envoy said.
On 05 August last year, India, he said, initiated its so-called ‘final solution’ in occupied Jammu and Kashmir by eliminating its statehood, imposing a siege and changing its demographic composition, flagrantly violating the UN Charter, the relevant Security Council resolutions; and international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention.
During the last fourteen months, India has imprisoned all Kashmiri political leaders, illegally detained 13,000 Kashmiri youth, tortured many of them, summarily executed young boys, put down protest violently, including the use of blinding pellet guns, and imposed collective punishments demolishing and burning entire neighborhoods and villages.
“Not a single Indian soldier has been punished for these crimes,” Ambassador Akram told delegates from around the world.
One and a half million Indian settlers have been issued domicile certificates to transform the illegally Indian Occupied Kashmir (IIOJK) from a Muslim majority state into a Hindu majority territory, he aid. ‘This gross violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention may be a pre-cursor to mass atrocities and genocide.”
The High Commissioner on Human Rights issued several statements since August 2019, urging India to “unlock the situation and fully restore the rights that are currently being denied” to the people of IIOJK, he pointed out. The joint communication by eighteen Special Mandate Holders of the Human Rights Council termed the human rights situation in IIOJK in “free fall”.
Major human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have expressed similar serious concerns about India’s human rights violations, including in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
“Indian authorities have failed to respond to any of these communications,” he said.
Referring to global resurgence in intolerance, discrimination, racism, and violence against monitories, the Pakistani envoy said prejudice, discrimination and violence against Muslims, including Islamophobia, was one of the manifestations of these extremist trends.
“Islamic shrines and holy places are being destroyed; our Prophet (Peace Be upon Him) insulted; the Holy Quran burnt – often in the name of freedom of expression.”
Ambassador Akram said Prime Minister Imran Khan has called on the General Assembly to declare an “International Day to Combat Islamophobia”. Pakistan, he said, looks forward to the support of all member states for this proposal.
