Pakistan will ‘fight to the end’: PM Imran Khan warns India

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan warned India if it dared commit any misadventure against it, it will encounter a nation that will fight to the end for its freedom.

This was said by the prime minister as he addressed the 75th UNGA via video link.

The premier spoke about India’s discriminatory policies for Muslims during the pandemic, saying that the government blamed the minority group for spreading the coronavirus and they were denied medical treatment on many occasions.

“Last February, Muslims faced target killings with police complicity in Delhi,” he said.

Referring to it as something that was “unprecedented in history”, PM Imran said that the Hindutva ideology sought to persecute 300 million Muslims, Christians and Sikhs.

PM Imran then spoke about India’s August 5 attempt to annex occupied Kashmir, adding that this was against the commitments India had made to the people of Kashmir and the world.

“About 13,000 Kashmiri youth were incarcerated and thousands tortured [since the August 5 move],” he said. “Indian occupation forces have used brute force including pellet guns against peaceful protesters,” he added.

“The Kashmiri media and those daring to raise their voices are being systematically harassed through draconian laws,” he said, drawing the world’s attention to the Indian forces’ brutal act of killing hundreds of Kashmiris in fake encounters and refusing to hand over their bodies back to their relatives.

India playing a ‘dangerous game’, says PM Imran

He called on the international community to prosecute the Indian civil and military personnel for their “crimes against humanity” in occupied Kashmir.

PM Imran said that India was attempting to obliterate the distinct Kashmiri identity by altering the area’s demography, to escape the plebiscite which is in line with the UN resolutions.

“This action is in violation of the UN charter, [Security] Council resolutions and international law, particularly the 4th Geneva Convention,” he said. “Changing the demographic structure of an occupied territory is a war crime.”

The prime minister praised the people of Kashmir, saying that “generation after generation of Kashmiris have laid down their lives to rid themselves of Indian occupation” and that they will never submit before the Indian state as their struggle was indigenous.

“The government of Pakistan is committed to stand by its Kashmiri brothers and sisters in their legitimate struggle for self-determination,” he said.

PM Imran warned that India was playing ” a dangerous game” by upping the military ante against Pakistan to divert the world’s attention in a nuclearised environment.

He said that if the fascist RSS-led Indian government decides to commit any misadventure against Pakistan, it will be met by a nation that is ready to fight till the end for its freedom.

PM Imran said that durable peace in South Asia will not be possible till the issued of occupied Kashmir is not resolved on the basis of international legitimacy, confirming the world’s concern that Kashmir is a nuclear flashpoint.