NEW YORK: Pakistan categorically rejected India’s claim at the United Nations that Jammu and Kashmir is its integral part, saying the state was an internationally recognised disputed territory.
“Jammu and Kashmir neither is a so-called ‘integral’ part of India, nor is it India’s internal matter,” Pakistani delegate Saima Saleem said in response to an Indian delegate assertion that by raising the Kashmir dispute in his speech to the UN General Assembly, Prime Minister Imran Khan had brought in “matters internal to my country.”
Reacting to the Indian claim, Ms Saleem, a counsellor at the Pakistan Mission to the UN, said, “India remains in occupation of an internationally recognized disputed territory whose final disposition needs to be decided in accordance with the democratic principle of a free and impartial plebiscite under UN auspices, as provided for under numerous resolutions of the Security Council.”
The Indian delegate, Sneha Dubey, while exercising her right of reply to PM Imran Khan’s statement, also made sweeping allegations about Pakistan’s involvement in terrorism, claiming that country has a policy of harbouring, aiding and actively supporting terrorists.
She also claimed that occupied Kashmir and Ladakh “were, are and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India”. She emphasised that this included areas that are “occupied” by Pakistan,
In a hard-hitting statement made in exercise of her right of reply, Ms Saleem, the Pakistani delegate, said India’s use of the canard of terrorism, regurgitating stale arguments are typical of all occupiers.
“Let me emphasize that India itself is the principal perpetrator, sponsor, financier and abettor of terrorism in the region,” she said, adding New Delhi was involved in at least 4 different types of terrorism:
-Resorting to “state terrorism” to suppress the people of Indian Illegally Occupied in Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK);
-Funding and supporting terrorist organizations like the TTP which conducts numerous cross-border terrorist attacks against Pakistan;
-Financing and organizing mercenary terrorist organizations against Pakistan to impede economic growth and prosperity of the region, citing the capture of Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav;
-Its supremacist ideology has mainstreamed Islamophobia and bigotry against minorities, particularly Muslims.
She said India’s violations of human rights in occupied Jammu and Kashmir were well documented in the two reports of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, and also major human rights organisations, but Indian authorities have failed to respond to their critical reports.
“India’s compulsive obsession with Pakistan is neither new nor surprising. It has permeated its ruling elite and governance structures.”
“But there is a method to this obsession as it underpins India’s electoral and foreign policy under the ruling RSS-BJP ‘Hindutva’ inspired government,” she added.
She said the government of Pakistan has recently released a comprehensive and well-researched dossier containing the entire range of gross, systematic and widespread violations of human rights being perpetrated by Indian security forces in the occupied territory.
“We call upon the international community to take cognizance of the compelling evidence and hold India accountable for the heinous crimes,” she said. “If India has nothing to hide, it must accept a UN Commission of Inquiry and agree to implement the Security Council resolutions stipulating a plebiscite to enable the people of Jammu and Kashmir to exercise their right to self-determination,” the Pakistani delegate added.
