Youm-e-Istehsal Kashmir: Message from Shah Mehmood Qureshi (Foreign Minister of Pakistan)

TEXT: One year ago, the Indian Government undertook illegal and unilateral actions to perpetuate its occupation of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK) and further disempower and disenfranchise the Kashmiri people. The illegal Indian actions were also aimed at changing the demographic structure of IIOJK to fulfill the RSS-BJP 'Hindutva 'agenda in violation of the United Nations Security Council Resolutions and international law, particularly the 4th Geneva Convention.

The BJP regime believed that: the world would not notice this mutilation of justice; over 900,000 Indian occupation force will silence the Kashmiris through brutalization; and that Pakistan will accept the new status quo. On all counts, India has been proven wrong.

The international community, human rights organizations, media and civil society have been vocal in their condemnation of India's unconcealed absolutism. Parliamentarians of major world powers have written to their leadership and moved resolutions condemning India's actions. Major world leaders have stood by the Kashmiris, the United Nations Special Mandate Holders have called out the Indian Government on its anti-minority policies, and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has discussed the issue of Jammu & Kashmir three times during the past one year after a gap of more than 55 years.

The international community must do more and back its words with concrete actions for the innocent Kashmiri people who have been subjected to arbitrary arrests, detentions, torture, corporal punishment, extra-judicial killings, digital lockdown and a military siege in occupied Jammu & Kashmir for over twelve months. For a large part of the global population, to continue to have faith in international justice, it is imperative that India is held accountable for its unconscionable actions since 5 August 2019.

The world community must press India to revoke all draconian laws, allow neutral observers, international human rights and humanitarian organisations and the international media to visit the occupied region to ascertain the condition of the Kashmiri people, and let the Kashmiris exercise their right to self-determination in accordance with the relevant UNSC Resolutions.

In the end, let me reiterate that Pakistan will continue its unstinted support for the Kashmiri people until the achievement of their legitimate right to self-determination in accordance with the UNSC Resolutions and as per the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020