Pakistan warns against ‘catastrophe’ in S. Asia over Indian actions in Kashmir, Muslim persecution

Pakistan has warned that India’s unilateral annexation of Jammu and Kashmir, imposition of a crippling, military-enforced curfew in the disputed state and mass arrests of Kashmiris, as also its hostile actions against Indian Muslims could propel South Asia “towards a catastrophe”.

“It is high time for the international community to wake up to the clear and present danger and intervene to defuse this India-instigated crisis,” Ambassador Munir Akram told the UN General Assembly on Thursday.

Speaking in a debate on “Culture of Peace”, the Pakistani envoy said that as a party to the Kashmir dispute, the United Nations has an obligation to secure the implementation of the Security Council resolutions and also to protect the human rights of the Kashmiri people, including their right to self-determination.

In his speech, Ambassador Akram deplored that the war on terror, following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, has virtually turned into a war on Islam. The “pernicious” equation of Islam with terrorism had been used to justify discrimination against Muslim individuals, communities and entire nations as well as a series of foreign invasions in the Muslim world.

“It has also justified denial of justice and self-determination to the Palestinian and Kashmiri peoples,” he added.

Noting that Islamophobia was becoming even more pervasive, the Pakistani envoy said that the phenomenon has assumed a ‘deadly dimension” in India.

The mothership of governing Bharatiya Janata Party is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a fascist organization created almost 100 years ago by its founder, Gowalker, who advocated “cleansing” of Muslims and other minorities from India’s “Aryan” Hindu population, Ambassador Akram said.

“The RSS’ gangs of violent thugs organize and behave like Hitler’s Brown Shirts.”

Pointing out out that a RSS member had assassinated Mahatama Gandhi, he said that in 1992 the organization’s mob destroyed the historic Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. Last month, the Indian Supreme Court handed-over the Mosque site to those who destroyed it. to build a Hindu Temple.

The same year, in 1992, he added, thousands of Muslims were killed in Mumbai by Hindu extremist mobs. “There is considerable evidence that, in 2002, (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi, a life-long member of the RSS, as Chief Minister of Gujrat orchestrated the massacre of 2000 Muslim men, women and children there.”

In several parts of India, the Pakistani envoy said, the plan for ethnic cleansing was being implemented.

In Assam, he said, two million Muslims and Christians have been arbitrarily stripped of their Indian nationality. Thousands were being held in concentration camps, and the new nationality registration was to be applied across India. In this regard, he pointed to the passage by Indian Parliament of a patently anti-Muslim law called the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which envisions granting citizenship to all in India except the Muslims.

“Muslims are being indiscriminately killed across India, with complete impunity, by Hindu ‘cow vigilantes’ and extremists,” he said, adding that Indian journalists, the electronic and print media, and even opposition politicians had been silenced.

The annexation of Jammu and Kashmir and the obliteration of its identity was a primary objective of the Modi Government, which on 5 August unilaterally and illegally changed two articles in the Indian Constitution to eliminate Jammu and Kashmir’s special and autonomous status, in a bid to transform a Muslim-majority state into a Hindu-majority territory.

“We fear that Indian repression will intensify further,” Ambassador Akram said. “The Kashmiris will inevitably express their rage and rejection. Indian forces will without doubt respond with characteristic brutality. ”

To divert attention from its repression, India could launch another “false flag” operation to justify another aggression against Pakistan, he said, while noting that New Delhi had issued new maps showing both Indian-occupied and Pakistan administered Jammu and Kashmir as part of India.

Referring to the intensification of India’s ceasefire violations, the Pakistani envoy said, “We have observed threatening Indian Army movements along the Line of Control in Kashmir in recent days.”

Pakistan, he said, does not want war, but if India mounts another attack against Pakistan, “we will respond vigorously and effectively.”

“It is high time for the international community to wake up to the clear and present danger and intervene to defuse this India-instigated crisis,” Ambassador Akram said in conclusion.