Qureshi calls for India to end state terrorism in Kashmir

ISLAMABAD(APP): Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday called upon India to rescind its unilateral action of August 5, 2019 on Jammu and Kashmir and end all instruments of oppressions and state-terrorism.

“India must respect the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) resolutions and let the Kashmiris exercise their right to self-determination,” the foreign minister said in his address at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute.

Qureshi said India in a state of “power drunkenness” had embarked upon a Hitlerian final solution for the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

He termed the August 5 decision on Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) a beginning of intensification of the tsunami of Indian state-terrorism.

He mentioned that the resolutions of the UNSC, at which India covets a permanent seat, were cast aside and no tool of cruelty was deemed excessive by the world’s so-called largest democracy.

The foreign minister said two years on, the Kashmiris continued to languish in the “largest concentration camp on the planet”.

“On top of that, they are being held incommunicado. They do not have access to regular or even emergency medical facilities – a plight not shared even by the worst criminals,” he stressed.

He said even COVID-19, which generated unprecedented empathy in the human race, had done nothing to bring even an iota of relief to the Kashmiris.

India, he said, was trying to eliminate Kashmiris altogether as the young men were disappearing without a trace.

New domicile rules and land laws had been thrust upon the Kashmiris to reengineer IIOJK’s demography, he added.

“In its delusion of grandeur, India expected the world and more pertinently Pakistan, to acquiesce,” he said.

Qureshi said Pakistan, guided by the clarity of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision, stood its ground and focused on rousing the international community.

“I am happy to note that our efforts have not been in vain. The Security Council has discussed the Jammu & Kashmir dispute thrice since August 2019,” he said.

He said the world leaders, parliamentarians, media, humanists and civil society at large had understood that “beyond the smokescreen of Indian sophistry, lies Kashmiris’ perpetual nightmare”.

Qureshi said that the government of Pakistan was absolutely clear that it would continue to lend moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris.

He called upon the international community to exhort India to “treat Kashmiris like human beings”.

“This will pull out the dagger, which rankles in the heart of bilateral and regional peace and bodes ill for international peace and security,” he said, adding that it would also unlock the potential of South Asia.

Qureshi said Pakistan was shifting focus from geo-politics to geo-economics and wanted peace with India, but not at the expense of the Kashmiris.

“We hope Indian leadership will prefer statesmanship over populism,” he said, and added that together, it could weaken the extremist narrative through a genuine pacific settlement of a festering dispute.