The PM’s speech

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s address to the UN General Assembly on Friday was conscience-rattling discourse directed at the world community and the UN. It would not be an exaggeration to say that no Pakistani leader has ever before advocated the case of Kashmir and unmasked Indian designs with such eloquence as he did.

Imran Khan was right on money in warning the world about the threats posed to regional peace by the racist philosophy of the RSS if the world continues to show apathy to the sufferings of the people of Kashmir and India’s aggressive designs towards Pakistan.

World history presents incontestable evidence of the fact that oppression, injustice and denial of the rights of people breed militancy and lead to radicalization of the people who perforce pick up arms to win their freedom or get even with the oppressor. He was right to point out that militancy or terrorism has nothing to do with the religion of Islam and for that matter with any religion as all religions of the world believe in peace and harmony.

The reality is that the conflicts around the world remain unresolved because the big powers invariably look at them through the prism of their strategic and commercial interests rather than focusing on humanitarian aspects and principles of the UN charter. It is an irrefutable reality that the UN and the world community promised the right of self-determination to the people of Kashmir.

The people of Kashmir waited for more than four decades for India to fulfill its commitment in regard to holding a referendum to decide their future. The Indian intransigence in this regard forced them to launch an armed struggle to win their freedom in 1989, a legitimate course as per UN resolution 3314. It was accepted by the world as a legitimate freedom movement and the international media is on record to have reported on it in that vein.

Come 9/11, the whole scenario changed which led to the emergence of ‘Islamophobia’ and those powers which acknowledged freedom struggle in Indian occupied Kashmir as a legitimate phenomenon started subscribing to the Indian view of it being terrorism. This transformation in their attitude stemmed from their strategic and commercial considerations. They grabbed it as a chance to exploit the Indian market consisting of 1.2 billion people, as rightly pointed out by Imran Khan. Humanitarian considerations took a back seat.

According to figures compiled by different human rights organizations including Amnesty International, since January 1989 till August 2019, the Indian security forces have killed 95,438 people including 7128 custodial killings, gang-raped 11,140 women and destroyed 109,409 homes. Since Modi became prime minister of India, the killing spree in IOK has assumed new dimensions. The killing of Kashmiri freedom fighter Burhan Wani in 2016 gave new momentum to the freedom movement and its indigenous character has been corroborated by international human rights organizations, Indian intellectuals and even by the Indian army chief in an interview with The Economic Times last June.

The Indian security forces have also raised the level of oppression in the valley. Since July 2016, 1031 people have been killed, more than 27000 subjected to torture, 11858 have been arrested, 10298 injured with pallet guns, 3306 homes have been demolished and 933 women have been gang-raped. But unfortunately all those killings and acts of barbarity failed to stir the conscience of the world.

While letting loose the killing spree and atrocities in Kashmir, India under Modi has also adopted a hostile posture towards Pakistan by keeping the LOC and working boundary hot through continued violations of the ceasefire agreement of 2013 between the two countries leading to civilian casualties. India used the Pulwama incident even to commit aggression against Pakistan which was befittingly responded to by Pakistan. Thanks to the restraint shown by Pakistan and the role played by friendly countries and the US the situation did not take an ugly turn.

Right from beginning it has been the policy of the Modi government to isolate Pakistan and have it designated as a state exporting terrorism; unfortunately, there were some takers of that narrative who put pressure on Pakistan rather than seeing things in their proper perspective, acknowledging our contribution to the fight against terror; a phenomenon that owed its emergence to the duplicitous stance of the US about the Taliban, as explained in detail by Imran Khan in his address to the UN General Assembly. Pakistan has dismantled all terrorist groups and the PM’s call to the UN to send a mission to corroborate that claim itself speaks about that reality.

The world and the UN kept their eyes closed to the state terrorism by India in IOK and its involvement in fomenting insurgency in Balochistan and acts of terrorism against Pakistan. India being a member of the Pacific group of the FATF has also been making strenuous efforts to have Pakistan black-listed. It has spurned all initiatives by Pakistan to recalibrate relations between the two countries by resolving all disputes including the core issue of Kashmir.

Encouraged by the world apathy to the plight of the people of Kashmir, the Modi government made a very dangerous move to end the special status of IOK. This was tantamount to unilateral repudiation of the UN resolutions on Kashmir and bilateral arrangements between Pakistan and India.

Kashmir is under curfew since August 5 and eight million people of IOK are under siege. Prime Minister Imran was right to say that it is a very precarious situation which might lead to further radicalization of the Kashmiri youth who in all probability will react against the Indian oppression when the curfew is lifted; the retaliation by the Indian security forces could lead to an unprecedented bloodbath in the valley. He justifiably feared that India might enact another false-flag operation like Pulwama to blame Pakistan and find an excuse to commit an act of aggression, bringing the two nuclear powers face to face with each other unfurling disastrous consequence for the region and the world at large.

The prime minister’s discourse focused on rattling the conscience of the world and urging it to act now.

The writer is a freelance contributor.

Email: ashpak10@gmail.com