ISLAMABAD: Speakers at a seminar have urged the United Nations to appoint a special envoy on Kashmir, aiming at resolving the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, and to stop India from committing crimes against humanity in the Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK).
They said that the United Nations (UN) had miserably failed in maintaining peace in various regions of the world especially in the Muslim world saying the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia also reflected the failure of the United Nations Security Council.
They added that the UN had failed to resolve the territorial conflicts in many parts of the world and the Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan could spark a new war between Pakistan and India, if the UN failed to play its due role in resolving the dispute.
Addressing a one-day seminar, here on Friday with regard to Black Day, titled 'Kashmir's Prolonged Military Occupation: Lessons from history and the way forward', organised by Legal Forum For Oppressed Voices of Kashmir (LFoVK).
Speaking on the occasion, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir Shehryar Khan Afridi said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's expansionist agenda had been exposed to the world, and it could no more keep its occupation of Jammu and Kashmir.
Referring to the recent remarks of the US President, Donald Trump, about India, Afridi said Trump's remarks were a diplomatic snub for Modi as India was facing international isolation.
He said that the world needed to take notice of the crimes against humanity being carried out by the fascist regime of Narendra Modi under the influence of terrorist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which wanted to make India a Hindu Rashtra.
Addressing the participants, President Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Sardar Masood Khan said Kashmiri leadership had waged a war for independence in 1947 and got the AJK freed from the occupying forces of India.
He said that the tribesmen had taken part in the freedom movement along with their Kashmiri brethren. He said that the state of AJK had been liberated as a base camp for the freedom struggle of Kashmir.
He said that October 26 hence was remembered as Day of Solidarity between the peoples of Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir. He said that the first genocide of Kashmiris had been at the hands of Indian forces in Jammu, soon after the partition of the subcontinent.
He also trashed the Indian insistence that Kashmir was a bilateral issue between Pakistan and India, and said that Kashmir was an international issue and any dialogue must be held under the auspices of the United Nations as the UN had guaranteed Kashmir resolution.
Ambassador (retired) Abdul Basit said that there was a dire need for Pakistan to continue with its longstanding and consistent stance on the Kashmir dispute. He called for appointing a special envoy on Jammu and Kashmir.
He urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to back rhetoric with actions on Kashmir. He said that Pakistan could not afford to engage India bilaterally on Kashmir as India was not willing to budge an inch from its stance on Kashmir.
He said that Kashmiris were ready to make any sacrifice but Pakistan needed to take a decision whether its resolve was as strong as of Kashmiris. Prominent Kashmiri leader Shaikh Tajammul Islam said that we had to wage a law fare against India.
He said that Pakistan was yet to build its legal case on Kashmir's occupation against India. He said that Pakistan had now a very strong legal case on Kashmir and India's case had crumbled. He said that Pakistan needed to present its case on Kashmir to the world as India had accepted the fact that the so-called instrument of accession was missing from its archives.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020