The All Parties Hurriyat Conference has said India’s continued occupation of Jammu and Kashmir and its refusal to honour the Kashmiri people’s UN-recognized right to self-determination are prolonging the Kashmir conflict and keeping lasting peace in South Asia out of reach.
India’s defiance of UN Kashmir resolutions keeps South Asia peace on back burner: APHC
ISLAMABAD, Sep 22 (APP):The All Parties Hurriyat Conference has said India’s continued occupation of Jammu and Kashmir and its refusal to honour the Kashmiri people’s UN-recognized right to self-determination are prolonging the Kashmir conflict and keeping lasting peace in South Asia out of reach.
APHC spokesman Advocate Abdul Rashid Minhas, in a statement in Srinagar, said India’s unrealistic approach and decades-long refusal to implement the United Nations resolutions on Kashmir had kept the region in persistent tension and instability, Kashmir Media Service reported.
The APHC urged the international community to exert pressure on India to resolve the Kashmir dispute, stressing that a free and impartial plebiscite, as envisaged in the relevant UN resolutions, including the January 5, 1949 resolution, remained the essential roadmap for a peaceful settlement.
It said that decades on, Kashmiris continued to await fulfilment of their right to self-determination, while India’s denial of this right ran contrary to the principles enshrined in the UN Charter. The APHC maintained that lasting peace in South Asia was closely linked to resolving the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.
The APHC said that since August 5, 2019, the people of the occupied territory had faced increasingly difficult circumstances after India revoked the territory’s special status and introduced sweeping political and administrative changes. It called for the release of all illegally detained Kashmiri political prisoners, including Hurriyat leadership, and said the Indian BJP regime could not suppress Kashmiris’ political aspirations through military force and black laws.
The APHC called upon the international community to expose what it described as the BJP government’s communal Hindutva agenda, repressive policies and measures aimed at consolidating Indian control over IIOJK.
It said the Kashmir dispute warranted immediate attention at the ongoing 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
The APHC said the United Nations was morally and legally bound to help settle the lingering Kashmir dispute in accordance with its resolutions, urging the world body to break its silence over the situation in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
It further alleged that the Indian government was attempting to obliterate the distinct Kashmiri identity by altering the demographic composition of IIOJK, and urged the UN to take concrete steps to protect Kashmiris and implement its resolutions for a settlement of the dispute.
The APHC stressed that the international community had a responsibility to support efforts toward a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute and lasting peace in South Asia. It said Kashmiris had consistently advocated peace and dialogue despite the hardships they had faced under Indian military occupation.
The APHC urged the UN to address the humanitarian situation in the occupied territory, saying that lasting peace in South Asia would remain elusive until the Kashmir dispute was resolved in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions. It also called for accountability for alleged human rights violations and crimes against humanity in IIOJK.
