Pakistan Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi warned India at the UN on Tuesday against carrying out its threat to conduct strikes across the Line of Control, saying that Pakistan will give an effective and matching response. Speaking in the debate on the Secretary General's Report on the Work of the Organization, Pakistan's Ambassador to the UN said, "Do not underestimate Pakistan's resolve and capacity to defend itself. Any aggression or intervention will meet a matching and effective response from our armed forces and the people of Pakistan".
Dubbing as false the Indian claim to have conducted a so-called "surgical strike" across the Line of Control, Ambassador Lodhi told the world body that such claims and India's repeated threats to conduct such "strikes" across the LoC, constitute "flagrant violations of the UN Charter's injunction against the use or threat of use of force".
"This provides Pakistan sufficient reason to respond in exercise of its right to self-defense. By making such false claims and blatant threats, are India's leaders attempting to provoke a conflict with Pakistan?" she asked. She called on the world body not to ignore these open threats to use force by India, saying that the international community should take urgent action to prevail on India to halt its provocations against Pakistan.
She went on to say that India resorts to daily violations of the ceasefire along the Line of Control in Kashmir to cover up its crimes against the Kashmiri people, and to divert world attention.
Saying that human rights was the core of the Secretary General's call for prevention and sustaining peace, Ambassador Lodhi pointed out that these universal ideals are being violated, in plain sight of the international community, in Palestine, in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir, and elsewhere.
The continuing Indian occupation of Jammu and Kashmir, she said, is a travesty of justice, law and morality. "The dispute has been on the Agenda of the Security Council for almost 70 years. But the people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir still await the implementation of numerous Security Council resolutions, which promised them their inalienable right of self-determination", she added.
The Pakistani envoy praised the heroic and popular Kashmiri struggle against Indian occupation despite the brutal and indiscriminate use of force to suppress this indigenous freedom movement. "Hundreds of innocent, unarmed Kashmiris have been martyred in the recent wave of protests; countless others have been blinded and maimed by pellet guns, in what has widely been described as the first 'mass blinding' in human history", Ambassador Lodhi told the 193-member General Assembly.
She also told the world body that Indian atrocities in Jammu and Kashmir are well documented by international human rights organizations. "India does not deny these actions. It defends them. It does not express remorse on the acts of the perpetrators of these war crimes. It rewards them with national honors", she added.
Ambassador Lodhi also spoke about Pakistan's military campaign against terrorism and called for addressing this global phenomenon comprehensively and in all forms, including State terrorism. She called for addressing the underlying causes of global terrorism, saying that poverty and ignorance are part of the problem, as are social and political exclusion, foreign intervention and the denial of economic and political justice.
Dr Lodhi concluded by assuring Pakistan's firm and abiding commitment to this 'Parliament of Man' , a reference to the UN General Assembly, and to work collectively for a better and brighter future, for all humanity.
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