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NEW YORK: The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York has unanimously adopted on Friday a Pakistan-sponsored resolution, titled ‘Universal Realisation of the Right of the Peoples to Self-Determination’.
Co-sponsored by 72 countries, the resolution unequivocally supported the right of self-determination for all peoples under subjugation, alien domination and foreign occupation including the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K).
According to a statement issued by the Foreign Office (FO), the adoption of the resolution with consensus would provide the people of Indian-occupied Kashmir with hope in their just struggle for self-determination and freedom from oppression and occupation.
“The resolution secured the support of all UN member states due to its universal character of the right to self-determination and its continued applicability in situations of foreign occupation and intervention”, the Foreign Office said in a statement.
“This annual affirmation by the General Assembly serves to preserve the legitimacy of the freedom struggle of peoples under colonial and foreign occupation,” it added.
The FO concluded by saying that the adoption of resolution offered hope that destinies would be decided in accordance with the principles of justice enshrined in the UN Charter, UN resolutions and international law.
Earlier this month, the Foreign Office, while strongly condemning the continued military crackdowns and human rights violations in IIOJK, urged the international community, including the United Nations to take immediate cognisance of the grave situation in the occupied valley.
“The plight of the Kashmiris in IIOJK is also evident before the international community,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar said while addressing a weekly press briefing.
“We strongly condemn the continuing military crackdowns, arbitrary detentions, coercion, use of force, and extra-judicial killings in fake encounters and staged operations by the Indian occupation forces in IIOJK, where at least 21 Kashmiris have been martyred in the last one month,” he maintained.
The conflict and unrest in Indian-occupied Kashmir has intensified since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 and won a landslide re-election in 2019. The valley has been under a security lockdown since the Indian government stripped Kashmiris of the special autonomy they had for seven decades through a rushed presidential order in 2019.