NEW YORK – Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged the world community to takethe situation in Occupied Kashmir seriously to avoid a human catastrophe.
Addressing a news conference along with Foreign Minister Shah MahmoodQureshi and Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Dr. Maleeha Lodhiin New York, he said the only purpose of his coming to New York was tohighlight Indian oppression in Occupied Kashmir and plight of Kashmirisbefore the world.
He said the emerging situation is just the beginning which is going to getworse and there is a potential that two nuclear armed countries canconfront each other. He said for last fifty days people of Kashmir havebeen locked down by 900,000 Indian soldiers and there is total newsblackout. He said he met Kashmiris in New York who complained that theywere not able to contact their families in Occupied Kashmir. Besides, therehave been reports of mass arrests and even pro India Kashmiri leaders havebeen detained by the Indian authorities. He said Kashmiri youth have beenpicked up by police and hospitals are not functioning to providehealthcare.
Imran Khan said putting eight million people in an open jail isunprecedented. He said there are eleven Security Council resolutions thatrecognize Kashmir as disputed region and it is not internal matter ofIndia. The UNSC resolutions give the people of Kashmir right to plebisciteto determine their future. He said the incumbent BJP government in Indiahas annexed Kashmir by revoking article 370 that granted independent statusto Occupied Kashmir.
The Prime Minister emphasized that Indian authorities are now trying tochange the demography of the held territory, which is against the fourthGeneva Convention and is tantamount to a war crime. We fear that under thecurfew there is a serious risk of genocide of Kashmiri Muslims.
Imran Khan said his second fear is that whatever happens in Kashmir will beagain blamed on Pakistan by India. Last year, Pakistan was blamed by Indiaof a terrorist attack in Kashmir without giving any proof. Fact of thematter is that a Kashmiri youth who carried out the attack was radicalizedby the brutal treatment of Indian forces. India launched an assault onPakistan in February this year which was befittingly repulsed by Pakistanand two Indian jets were down with one pilot captured. Pakistan as agesture of goodwill returned the Indian pilot but India did not reciprocateto our peaceful gestures.
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The Prime Minister highlighted that the current BJP government is followerof violent ideology of RSS which is a racist organization. Thisorganization has role models like Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Thesame organization was responsible for killing of even Mahatma Gandhi. Hesaid current Indian Prime Minister has his hands stained with bloods ofIndian Muslims.
Imran Khan said the moment his party came to power, we did everything tomend our relations with India. He recalled that he had contacted IndianPrime Minister Modi on phone and said to him that people of Pakistan andIndia were facing similar problems including poverty, climate change andothers and both countries should move forward in bilateral relations. ButIndia was in election mode at that time and we thought perhaps after thatthe Indian government will take it seriously. But later it appeared theyhad a different agenda which emerged in the form of unilateral action of5th of August.
Imran Khan said in India, minorities including Muslims and Christians werenot safe and were treated as inferior citizens. He said during hisinteraction with leadership of US, France, UK and other countries, heapprised them of the gravity of the situation after the illegal action ofIndia. He said after Cuban missile crisis, this is the second dangeroussituation where two nuclear powers could be at the brink of war due to thisserious issue. He said what justification could possibly be for keepingeight million people under siege.
The Prime Minister urged the leadership of big countries that theirobsession with big India market should not be at the peril of the loss oflives of innocent Kashmiris.
