ISLAMABAD :President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday while reiterating Pakistan’s firm stance of political, diplomatic and moral support for the people of IIOJK, resolved that the country would not allow the international community to forget the Kashmir dispute.
Addressing a seminar “Pakistan Stands with Kashmir”, the president said the world community must play its role to pressure India to end human rights abuses like killings, curbs on freedom of expression and assembly.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, SAPM on National Security Moeed Yousuf, Kashmiri leader Mushal Mullick and Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS) Director General Ambassador Aizaz Chaudhry also addressed the event organized here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr by ISS and National Security Division. Federal ministers, diplomats and people from different walks of life attended the event held in connection with the Kashmir Solidarity Day being observed on Friday.
The president said the Kashmir Solidarity Day was aimed at commemorating the sacrifices by the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), and remind the world of its promises made to them.
Calling the implementation of the United Nations Security Council’s resolutions as the only solution, the president said the responsibility lied with the international community as the issue was related to the human lives.
Referring to the multiple UN resolutions guaranteeing right to self-determination to the Kashmiri people, the president said Kashmir would have been liberated had Jawahar Lal Nehru not approached the UN for ceasefire because since the beginning, the Kashmiris had been resisting the Indian occupation.
But, he said, India moved away from its international responsibility, usurping the fundamental rights of Kashmiri people.
Even while unilaterally revoking Article 370 of its constitution on August 5, 2019, he said, India had committed that it would not change the status of population and properties owned by the Kashmiris. Contrary to that, 900,000 troops were deployed in the territory to suppress eight million people, he added.
New domiciles were being given to the loyal people of Hindutva to change the demographic structure of the IIOJK, Dr Alvi said.
The president said Prime Minister Imran Khan had committed that if India took one step forward, Pakistan would take two for peace but the former moved to the opposite side.
Even following the Pulwama incident, he said, the Modi government tried to make aggression against Pakistan just to attract anti-Pakistan votes.
Calling India a “very irresponsible” and “belligerent” state, President Alvi said the country had been blaming Pakistan even for its own misdeeds.
He said India also revoked the special status of IIOJK and the only solution to the dispute was the reversal of Indian unilateral actions.
He thanked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who called for peaceful resolution of the dispute, and urged the attending diplomats to apprise their respective governments of what India had been doing in the IIOJK.
Urging the media to highlight the Indian atrocities in Kashmir, the president asked India to allow international media and the UN observers to the territory, just like Pakistan did in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on August 5, 2019, India had deluded that the Kashmiri people would accept its actions as their fate, it would hoodwink the entire international community, and it would be successful in depriving the Kashmiris of their right to self-determination forever.
“India has failed and will continue to fail in its dark attempts,” he said and reiterated that India stood fully exposed before the international community for usurping the fundamental freedoms of the Kashmiri people.
He said despite global condemnation, India had not corrected its course, rather was busy in further perpetuating its occupation of the IIOJK through illegal demographic changes.
Qureshi said the recent report by EU DisinfoLab about India’s global disinformation campaign against Pakistan had further validated Pakistan’s position about India’s evil designs.
He said India had been oppressing the Kashmiri people through an inhuman military siege, communication blockade, extra-judicial killings, usurpation of their rights to freedom, life, liberty, education and every other possible human right, besides using pellet guns against peaceful demonstrators.
The foreign minister asked India to immediately lift the continuing military siege and rescind illegal and inhuman actions taken in the IIOJK, remove restrictions on communications, and release the incarcerated Kashmiri political leaders and allow them to express the wishes of Kashmiri people.
National Security SAPM Dr Moeed Yousuf said as per Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision, Pakistan was pursuing an agenda of regional peace and prosperity, but contrary to that India was undermining its positive efforts.
He said the solution to the Kashmir issue was enshrined in the UN Security Council resolutions and their non-implementation showed that the world community was not serious towards the sufferings of Kashmiris.
He said it seemed that the mercantile interests overshadowed human rights and peace as the humans in the IIOJK were being treated like animals. The world’s silence on the longest unresolved dispute was illogical, he added.
Referring to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s offer of peace initiative, Moeed Yousuf said instead of taking a step towards peace, India took many steps in the opposite direction.
Mushal Mullick, the wife of incarcerated Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik, said the COIVD-19 lockdown had to some extent helped the world realize the sufferings of living confined to indoors, which the Kashmiris had been bearing for decades.
Her husband had been away from her for the last six years and had not even spoken to each other for two years, she added.
She said under the new draconian laws, the Modi government was allowing the Indians to settle in the disputed territory to change its demographic structure.
Mushal said the Kashmiri people were in dire need of the international community’s support or else they would become extinct in the world. If the voice was not raised against Indian aggression, the people of Kashmir would tear down the secular fabric of India.
Executive Director of YFK International Kashmir Lobby Group Ahmed Qureshi said the UN reports also exposed the human rights abuses in the IIOJK, including killings, rapes and curbs. However, he said there had been a positive change in international media which was now highlighting the sufferings of the Kashmiri people, who, otherwise, had been wronged during the last seven decades.
ISS Director General Aizaz Chaudhry said the people of Pakistan felt pained and saddened over the unfulfilled promises made to the Kashmiri people through the UNSC resolutions.
He said the documentary, shown earlier in the event, was enough to shake the world’s conscience as India was attempting to erase the identity of Kashmir people