UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan used his address to the UN General Assembly on Friday to warn the international community that India was planning another “ill-conceived misadventure” in a “nuclearised environment,” but Pakistan was ready to “fight for its freedom to the end”.
Khan also urged the UN Security Council to play its role in preventing this dangerous conflict, which could jeopardise the entire region.
“In order to divert attention from its illegal actions and atrocities in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir, India is playing a dangerous game of upping the military ante against Pakistan in a nuclearised strategic environment,” he said.
Khan informed the world body that despite constant “Indian provocations and ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary targeting innocent civilians, Pakistan had exercised maximum restraint.
“We have consistently sensitised the world community about a ‘false flag’ operation and another ill-conceived misadventure by India,” he added.
He said that while his parents were born in the colonial India, his was the first generation that grew up in an independent Pakistan. “I want to make it clear that any attempt by the fascist totalitarian RSS-led Indian government to aggress against Pakistan will be met by a nation that will fight for its freedom to the end,” he said.
“The Security Council must prevent a disastrous conflict and secure the implementation of its own resolutions [on Kashmir] as it did in the case of East Timor,” he said.
Referring to recent acrimony between two South Asian nations, Khan told the 75th UNGA that there would be no durable peace and stability in South Asia until the Jammu and Kashmir dispute was resolved on the basis of international legitimacy.
“Kashmir has been rightly described as a ‘nuclear flash point’,” he said, noting that the UN Security Council has considered the situation in Jammu and Kashmir three times in the past year.
“It must take appropriate enforcement actions. It must also take steps to protect the Kashmiris from an impending genocide by India,” he said.
Pakistan, he said, had always called for a peaceful solution. “But for peace to prevail, India must rescind the measures it has instituted since Aug 05, 2019, end its military siege and other gross human rights violations, and agree to resolve the Jammu & Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the will of the Kashmiri people,” he added.
Pakistan prime minister also urged the international community to avoid blaming Muslims for every bad incident in the world, to stop ridiculing their religious personalities and not to desecrate their religious places.
He warned that the “Hindutva ideology was set to marginalise almost 300 million human beings — Muslims, Christians and Sikhs. This is unprecedented in history and does not augur well for the future of India as we all know that marginalisation of human beings leads to radicalization.”
Khan said that for over 72 years, “India had illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir against the wishes of the Kashmiri people, and in blatant violation of the resolutions of the Security Council and its own commitments.”
He said the “government and people of Pakistan were committed to standing by and supporting their Kashmiri brothers and sisters in their legitimate struggle for self-determination.”
Meanwhile, Pakistan in a strongly worded rebuke to the Indian response following Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), stated that “Jammu and Kashmir never was and never will be a part of India”, adding that New Delhi has no claim over the region other than that of a “military occupier”.
“In Jammu and Kashmir, India has no other claim than that of a military occupier. It is compelled to use naked force to impose its occupation on an unwilling and oppressed people. Ask the people of Jammu and Kashmir and they will tell you emphatically: Jammu and Kashmir is not a part of India. It never was and never will be,” said Zulqarnain Chheena, representing Pakistan at the forum.
Earlier on Saturday, India had responded to the prime minister’s UNGA address calling it “full of lies, misinformation and warmongering”. The Indian delegate had also walked out while the Pakistan premier’s pre-recorded UNGA speech was aired.
In a rebuttal to the Indian statement, the Pakistan representative said that the Indian reply was “another shameful attempt to deflect attention away from the real issues”.
“India, however, will not be able to escape accountability for its crimes,” Pakistani representative said.
The Pakistani representative said that the state of Jammu and Kashmir was an internationally recognised disputed territory as decreed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
“The final disposition of the state will be made in accordance with the will of the people expressed through democratic methods of a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the UN.”
“Kashmir will be free one day. This is not only a lesson of history, it is also an imperative of justice,” he said. (Agencies)
