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Friday March 29, 2024

Let Kashmiris decide their future

Pakistan to India

By our correspondents
October 03, 2015
UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan hit back strongly at India on Thursday after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called Jammu and Kashmir an “Indian state” and went on to accuse Islamabad of abetting terrorism.
“India’s attempts to deny its illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir are a travesty of history,” Pakistani delegate Bilal Ahmad told the UN General Assembly, while speaking in right of reply.
“To perpetuate its occupation,” he said, “India has deployed over seven hundred thousand security forces in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Only the occupier would oppose the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions that promised self-determination to the people of the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir.”
Bilal Ahmad, a counsellor at the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations, said over 100,000 Kashmiris had been killed, thousands of women widowed and raped, and children orphaned by the brutal occupation and the most egregious form of state terrorism by India. He also pointed out that independent human rights organizations had confirmed the existence of over 6,000 unnamed mass graves in Indian Occupied Kashmir.
The Pakistani delegate called on India to withdraw its troops and let the Kashmiris decide their own fate in line with relevant Security Council resolutions. The issue could not be cast aside by empty rhetoric; it would always be on top of the list of any discussions between India and Pakistan, he said.
“India’s insistence on limiting the talks to a one-point agenda proves that it is neither interested nor serious in engaging in a genuine dialogue,” Bilal Ahmed told the 193-member assembly.
“Pakistan’s commitment, and its role and sacrifice in the fight against terrorism, including the success of our ongoing counter-terrorism operations, have been acknowledged and praised by the entire international community,” he said.
Bilal accused India of failing to bring to justice perpetrators of terrorism against civilians in the 2007 Samjhota Express bombing.
He also said Pakistan had handed over dossiers to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon containing “evidence” of Indian involvement in terrorism in the country and links of its security agencies with the Taliban in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
“The dossiers include details of Indian interference and support for terrorism in Balochistan and Karachi as well as its security and intelligence agencies link with the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, especially in Fata,” he said.