Pakistan was urged Friday to appoint a special envoy on Kashmir who couldput together efforts for the country towards resolution on Kashmir.
The demand was put forth at a conference in Islamabad where speakersdebated challenges, mistakes and a way forward on the Kashmir dispute.
“There is a dire need for Pakistan to continue with its longstanding andconsistent stance on Kashmir,” said Pakistan’s former ambassador to India,Abdul Basit.
The Legal Forum for Oppressed Voices of Kashmir hosted the conference,Kashmir’s prolonged military occupation: Lessons from past and the wayforward.
“Pakistan cannot afford to engage India bilaterally as New Delhi is notwilling to change its position on Kashmir,” said Basit as he urged PrimeMinister Imran Khan to appoint a special envoy. “Kashmiris are ready tomake any sacrifice but Pakistan needs to take a decision whether itsresolve is as strong as of Kashmiris.”
Azad Kashmir’s President Sardar Masood Khan slammed “Indian propaganda”regarding the military occupation of Kashmir on Oct. 27, 1947.
“The then leadership of Kashmir under Sardar Ibrahim Khan waged a war ofliberation and freed Azad Kashmir from occupational forces of India,” hesaid. “The first genocide of Kashmiris was committed by Indian forces inJammu soon after partition of the sub-continent.”
Khan said Kashmir is not a bilateral issue between Pakistan and India but”Kashmir is an international issue and any dialogue must be held under theauspices of United Nations as the UN had guaranteed Kashmir resolution.”
Pakistan’s Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir Chairman Shehryar Khan Afriditold the conference that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s”expansionist agenda” had been exposed to the world and “it can no morekeep its occupation” of Jammu and Kashmir.
He referred to recent remarks by US President Donald Trump about India as”a diplomatic snub for Modi as India was facing international isolation.”
Referring to the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, Afridi said: “Thewar between Azerbaijan and Armenia reflected the failure of United NationsSecurity Council in resolution of territorial conflicts and Kashmir couldspark a new war between Pakistan and India if the United Nations failed toplay its due role in resolving Kashmir dispute.”
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“The United Nations needed to learn from the fate of the League of Nations.The UN is also fast losing its purpose and Kashmir resolution was itsbiggest test,” said Afridi, who is also a federal minister in Khan’sCabinet.
Afridi urged the international community to “take notice of the crimesagainst humanity that were being carried out by the fascist regime ofNarendra Modi under the influence of terrorist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh[RSS] which wanted to make India into a Hindu Rashtra.”
The RSS is a right-wing Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer group.
Kashmiri business and diaspora leader, Dr. Mubeen Shah, addressed theconference virtually and said India cannot change the status of Kashmir”despite its brutal occupation.”
“India has willfully destroyed the economy in occupied Kashmir and under asystematic genocide, the Indian regime was handing over Kashmiri propertiesto people from mainland India,” said Shah, suggesting a third country takethe Kashmir issue to the International Court of Justice like Gambia tookthe case of Rohingya against Myanmar in 2019.
Kashmiri Journalist Mukhtar Baba, who also spoke via video link, said Indiawould never agree to resolve Kashmir without “strong force on the ground.”
Urging Pakistan to widen the scope of the Kashmir Committee’s area ofengagement, Baba demanded the time has come to make the All PartiesHurriyat (Freedom) Conference “viable” and the Pakistan government “issuepassports to those Kashmiris who are actively working for Kashmir indifferent parts of the world.”
Baba said Azad Kashmir should be declared a “base camp of the liberationmovement of Kashmir.” – Anadolu Agency