UNITED NATIONS, Oct 03 : Describing India\u2019s occupation of Jammu and Kashmir as the \u201cworst manifestation of modern-day colonialism,\u201d Pakistan has called on the U.N. to push for a peaceful settlement of the lingering Kashmir dispute in accordance with the Security Council resolutions and Kashmiri people\u2019s wishes. Noting that since 1946, 80 former colonies have gained independence, Ambassador Munir Akram told the General Assembly\u2019s Special Political and Decolonization (Fourth) Committee that there are still peoples who are denied the right to self-determination, \u201cmost prominently the people of occupied Jammu & Kashmir and Palestine.\u201d The right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people, the Pakistani envoy said, was explicitly recognized in UNSC resolution 47 and several subsequent resolutions, which prescribed that the final disposition of the State of Jammu & Kashmir should be decided by its people through a free and fair plebiscite held under UN auspices. These resolutions were accepted by both India and Pakistan, he said, adding that under Article 25 of the UN Charter, both parties are obliged to implement these resolutions. In his remarks, Ambassador Akram also said that durable peace in the Middle East can only be achieved through the two-state solution and the establishment of a viable, independent and contiguous State of Palestine, with the pre-1967 borders and Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital. On Kashmir, the Pakistani envoy said that for 75 years, through force and fraud, India has avoided the implementation of UN resolutions, and since 1989, it\u2019s \u201cbrutal\u201d campaign of repression killed 100,000 Kashmiris. Since 5 August 2019, he said, India has taken \u201cunilateral and illegal steps\u201d to annex occupied Kashmir in what its leaders have termed as a \u201cFinal Solution\u201d. \u201cResolution 122 (1957) of the Security Council provides that unilateral measures \u2018to determine the future shape and affiliation of the entire state or any part thereof, would not constitute a disposition of the state’\u201d, Ambassador Akram said, adding that consequently all unilateral actions taken by India on and after 5 August 2019 are not only illegal, but, ipso facto, null and void.\u201d \u201cKashmir today is the most densely occupied place in the world, with more than 900,000 Indian occupation troops deployed there who have perpetrated a vicious campaign of extrajudicial killings in fake encounters and so-called \u2018cordon and search\u2019 operations; abduction and enforced disappearances of 13,000 young Kashmiri boys; collective punishments, destroying and burning entire villages and urban neighbourhoods,\u201d he said. \u201cIn a classic settler-colonial project, India is seeking to convert occupied Kashmir from a Muslim-majority state to a Hindu-majority territory,\u201d the Pakistani envoy said, pointing out that over 3.4 million fake domicile certificates have been issued to Hindus from across India. \u201cThe land and properties of Kashmiris are also being confiscated for military and official use,\u201d he told the committee. India\u2019s brutal campaign, he said, is turbo-charged by the ideology of \u2018Hindutva\u2019, which asserts the religious and ethnic supremacy of Hindus and hate against Muslims. \u201cThis has led the organization \u2013 Genocide Watch \u2013 to warn of the possibility of genocide in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and, indeed, against Muslims within India itself. Underscoring that the resolution of the Jammu & Kashmir dispute is essential to achieve durable peace in South Asia, Ambassador Akram said the onus is on India to create conditions for a dialogue towards its settlement. To that end, he said, India must stop its human rights violations in occupied Jammu and Kashmir; halt and reverse the process of demographic change there; and rescind the illegal and unilateral measures imposed on and after 5 August 2019. \u201cThe United Nations and all its Member States are bound by the Charter to promote a peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people,\u201d the Pakistani envoy said in conclusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 03 : Describing India\u2019s occupation of Jammu and Kashmir as the \u201cworst manifestation of modern-day colonialism,\u201d Pakistan has called on the U.N. to push for a peaceful settlement of the lingering Kashmir dispute in accordance with the Security Council resolutions and Kashmiri people\u2019s wishes. Noting that since 1946, 80 former colonies have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-359652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n