NEW YORK: Deploring lack of any response to his repeated offers of dialogue to India before and after the August 05 crackdown in Indian Held Kashmir (IHK), Prime Minister Imran Khan has said he would no longer seek dialogue with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, whom he accused of harbouring intentions to change the demographic character of the Muslim-majority region.
“There is no point in talking to them. I mean, I have done all the talking. Unfortunately, now when I look back, all the overtures that I was making for peace and dialogue, I think they took it for appeasement,” he said in an interview with The New York Times at the Prime Minister’s office in Islamabad.
“There is nothing more that we can do,” he added. The Times noted that PM Khan has repeatedly denounced India’s Hindu nationalist government for terminating the autonomy of Kashmir in an abrupt move. India, it noted, deployed thousands of troops to quell any possible unrest and severed nearly all communications in the poor Himalayan region, the flashpoint for two wars between Pakistan and India.
The newspaper pointed out that the prime minister and his cabinet ministers have likened the New Delhi government to Nazi Germany and asserted that a genocide is unfolding in the territory.
Imran Khan described Modi as a fascist and Hindu supremacist who intends to eradicate Kashmir’s mostly Muslim population and populate the region with Hindus. “The most important thing is that eight million people’s lives are at risk. We are all worried that there is ethnic cleansing and genocide about to happen,” the premier said.
Imran Khan spoke to The Times a day after he said he spoke by phone with President Donald Trump and told him of a potentially very explosive situation between his country and India. Last month, Imran Khan visited Washington and met with Trump, who said he would be willing to mediate the conflict. His offer was welcomed by Imran Khan but has not been accepted by India. Trump reiterated his offer on Tuesday, telling NBC News: “I’ll do the best I can to mediate or do something.”
In the interview, Imran Khan expressed concern that India might undertake a deceptive false-flag operation in Kashmir to try to justify military action against Pakistan. And Pakistan, he said, would be forced to respond.
“And then you are looking at two nuclear-armed countries eyeball to eyeball, and anything can happen,” he said. “My worry is that this can escalate and for two nuclear-armed countries, it should be alarming for the world what we are facing now,” he said.
Shortly after taking office last summer, the Times pointed out that Imran Khan reached out to India in an attempt to revive talks between the countries on a wide range of issues, including Kashmir. But Indian officials rejected Imran Khan’s efforts.
"With Pakistani-Indian relations in crisis, it is difficult to see how, in the foreseeable future, the countries can resume the on-again, off-again talks that have punctuated their relationship since they were partitioned in 1947," the Times said.
Imran Khan demanded that United Nations peacekeepersand observers be allowed in IHK as he repeatedly insisted during the interview that Modi intended to carry out a genocide of Kashmiri Muslims.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan called upon the world to move to prevent an impending genocide of Kashmiris in IHK.
In tweets, the prime minister on the first International Day for Victims of Violence based on Religion or Belief, called attention to the plight of millions of Kashmiris, living under brutal Indian occupation, abuse and violence, deprived of all fundamental rights and freedoms. He wrote, “Today, on the 1st International Day for Victims of Violence based on Religion or Belief, we call attention to the plight of millions of Kashmiris living under brutal Indian occupation, abuse & violence, deprived of all fundamental rights & freedoms.”
The prime minister recalled that the Indian occupation forces had even denied them their right to observe their religions practices, including Eidul Azha. “The Indian occupation forces have even denied them their right to observe their religious practices, including Eid ul Azha. As the world shows solidarity for victims of violence based on religion & belief, it must also move to prevent an impending genocide of Kashmiris in IOK,” he wrote.