ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Today marks the completion of 73 years since the United Nations committed that the Jammu and Kashmir Dispute would be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite.
In his message on the Kashmiris’ Right to Self-Determination Day being observed on Wednesday, the Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that through its resolution of January 5, 1949, the United Nations Security Council affirmed its support to the realization of an inalienable right to self-determination of Kashmiris.
The foreign minister said that self-determination is one of the fundamental rights codified in all major human rights instruments as well as the United Nations Charter. He said that the denial of this right and subjugation of Kashmiris in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) is the negation of human dignity.
Unfortunately, this right has not yet been realized for Kashmiris because of continuing oppression by India in IIOJK, he added.
In the last seven decades, three generations of Kashmiris have rendered tremendous sacrifices for their just struggle, yet their human dignity is being violated on daily basis in IIOJK.
Qureshi said that since its illegal and unilateral actions of August 5, 2019, India has been relentlessly pursuing further consolidation of its illegal military occupation, including through land confiscation, the influx of non-Kashmiris and creation of alien settlements in IIOJK in flagrant violation of international law especially the UN Charter, relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
The surge in fake encounters and so-called cordon-and-search-operations has resulted in the martyrdom of over 500 Kashmiris since August 5, 2019.
“This is abhorrent manifestation of the callous behavior and moral bankruptcy of BJP-RSS combine,” Qureshi said.
The foreign minister said that India must realize that the use of brutal force against the Kashmiri people including extra-judicial killings, custodial torture, enforced disappearances, incarceration of Kashmiri leadership and youth, use of pellet guns, destruction of houses to inflict collective punishment on the Kashmiri communities, and other methods of subjugation have failed in the past and will not succeed in the future.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that the indigenous resistance movement of the Kashmiris for their inalienable right to self-determination as enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions will only become stronger in the face of Indian state-terrorism.
The minister said that Pakistan calls upon the international community including the United Nations, human rights organizations, and the global media, to take full cognizance of the aggravating situation in IIOJK and hold India accountable for egregious human rights violations and serious crimes against humanity in the occupied territory.
Qureshi said that the international community must act in support of the fundamental freedoms and basic human rights of Kashmiris.
The foreign minister said that the United Nations must live up to its promise of granting the right to self-determination to Kashmiris. He said that it must urge India to allow UN fact-finding mission to IIOJK to investigate the reports of grave human rights violations there.
“Pakistan remains fully supportive of and stands in solidarity with its Kashmiri brothers and sisters,” he said. “We will continue to extend all possible support to the Kashmiris till the realization of their unalienable right to self-determination in accordance with the UNSC resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.”
