PM asks UNSC to protect Kashmiris from impending genocide by India

Prime Minister Imran Khan Friday urged the United Nations Security Council to protect the Kashmiris from “an impending genocide by India” and warned 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.

Addressing the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Imran Khan said India in an attempt to divert the world’s attention from its actions in Jammu and Kashmir was upping the military ante against Pakistan. “I want to make it clear that any attempt by the fascist totalitarian RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)-led Indian government to aggress against Pakistan will be met by a nation that will fight for its freedom to the end.”

Building upon his last year’s address where he spoke about the gross human rights violations in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the prime minister said Kashmir had been rightly described as a “nuclear flash point”. “The Security Council must prevent a disastrous conflict and secure the implementation of its own resolutions as it did in the case of East Timor,” Imran Khan told the 193-member world body.

He said the Security Council had 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.”  

Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke at length about the “smart lockdown” policy of Pakistan that won international acclaim, creation of a 500 billion US dollars fund for the developing world, climate change, India’s state sponsorship of Islamophobia and global framework to stem the illicit financial flows.

“Despite constant Indian provocations and ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary targeting innocent civilians, Pakistan has exercised maximum restraint.

“We have consistently sensitised the world community about a ‘false flag’ operation and another ill-conceived misadventure by India.” Imran Khan said his parents were born in colonial India and he was the first generation that grew up in an independent Pakistan, and warned,” The fascist totalitarian RSS-led Indian government to aggress against Pakistan”. The Pakistani nation would fight for its freedom to the end, he added.

The prime minister said Pakistan had always called for a peaceful solution to the dispute. He, however, pointed out that to achieve that end “India must rescind the measures it has instituted since 5th August 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 of course the wishes of the Kashmiri people.”

Imran Khan, in his speech a major portion of which dealt with the Kashmir cause, said 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 indeed its own commitments to the people of Kashmir.

“On 5th August last year, India illegally and unilaterally sought to change the status of the occupied territories and deployed additional troops, bringing the total number to 900,000, to impose a military siege on 8 million Kashmiris.” He mentioned that all the Kashmiri political leaders were incarcerated; about 13,000 Kashmiri youth were abducted and thousands tortured; a complete curfew was imposed, accompanied by a total communications blackout.

The PM said the Indian occupation forces used brute force, including pellet guns against peaceful protestors; imposed collective punishments, including the destruction of entire neighbourhoods, and extra-judicially murdered hundreds of innocent young Kashmiris in fake “encounters”, refusing even to hand over their bodies for burial.

“The Kashmiri media, and those daring to raise their voice, are being systematically harassed and intimidated through the use of draconian laws,” Imran Khan said. All of that had been well documented in the reports of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, communications from the Special Rapporteurs of Human Rights Council, and statements from human rights and civil society organizations, he added.

“The international community must investigate the grave violations and prosecute the Indian civil and military personnel involved in state terrorism and serious crimes against humanity, being perpetrated, I am sad to say, with complete impunity.” The objective of the brutal campaign, Prime Minister Imran Khan said, was to impose what the RSS-BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) regime had itself called the ‘Final Solution’ for Jammu and Kashmir.

He said the military siege was being followed by moves to change the demographic structure of the occupied territory. “This”, the prime minister termed, was an attempt to “obliterate the distinct Kashmiri identity in order to affect the outcome of a plebiscite envisaged in the UN Security Council resolutions”.

“This action is in violation of the UN Charter, Council resolutions and international law, particularly the 4th Geneva Convention. Changing demographic structure of occupied territory is a war crime,” Prime Minister Imran Khan said.

Islamophobia

The premier also touched upon the issue of Islamophobia during his speech, condemning the rising incidences of the burning of the Holy Quran and the publication of blasphemous material against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

“Muslims continue to be targeted with impunity in many countries,” he said. “Our shrines are being destroyed, our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) insulted, the Holy Quran burnt, and all this in the name of freedom of speech.”

Smart lockdown policy

Speaking about his government’s smart lockdown policy, the prime minister said that Pakistan opened up the agriculture and construction sector.

He credited the government’s Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme and other policies towards steering Pakistan out of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the prime minister cautioned that Pakistan was not yet “out of the woods”.

Money laundering

The prime minister spoke out against the flow of illicit financing from developing countries to the developed ones. He said that these “stolen resources” that flow from the developing countries to others weakens the foreign exchange and promotes property.

“If this policy continues, it will accentuate the difference between the rich and the poor,” said PM Imran, adding that rich countries lacked the political will to “curb this criminal activity”.

“Eventually, it will spark off a bigger global crisis, a far bigger global crisis than the migration crisis poses,” he said, adding that rich states cannot talk about human rights when they provide protection to money launderers and their ill-gotten wealth.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said that there are robust anti-money laundering regimes, adding that he calls upon the UN “to take the lead in efforts to build a global framework, to stem the illicit financial flows and ensure speedy repatriation of stolen wealth.”

“It is important to realise that the aid that flows from the rich to the developing world is minuscule compared to the massive outflows by our corrupt elites,” he said.

Climate change

The prime minister said that Pakistan’s contribution to carbon emission was very low when one considered many countries in the world but it was one of the countries’ most affected by the climate change.

The prime minister said that his government has launched an extremely ambitious plan to combat climate change by planting 10 billion trees over the next three years.

He called on world leaders to abide by the provisions of the Paris agreement on climate change. “Commitments made through the Paris agreement must be fulfilled, in particular, the commitment to mobilise $100billion annually as climate finance,” he said.