India hub of terrorism in South Asia: Munir Akram

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations Munir Akram said India has martyred at least 96,000 Kashmiris since 1989 with 900,000 troops deployed in the occupied valley since August 5, 2019.

Pakistan's UN ambassador also called the world body's attention to the fact that the ruling party's associated extremist Hindutva is openly calling for the genocide of Muslims in India. "Since August 5, 2019, 900,000 Indian troops have been stationed in Indian occupied Kashmir in every city, town, village and neighbourhood to impose what Indian leaders have themselves called a final solution for Jammu and Kashmir," said the ambassador while addressing the security Council's 8953rd meeting on the topic of "Protection of civilians in armed conflict: War in cities - protection of civilians in urban settings”.

“They have resorted to cordon and search operations, fake encounters to extra-judicially kill innocent Kashmiris youth, imposed collective punishment to destroy and burn the Kashmiri neighbourhood, urban centres and villages, used live ammunition against peaceful protesters, including pellet guns which have blinded hundreds of Kashmiri children, arbitrarily detained 13,000 young Kashmiri boys, many of whom have been tortured and who are in the process of changing the demography of the occupied Kashmir from a Muslim majority state to a Hindu majority territory.”

Munir Akram told the House that Pakistan has released a comprehensive and well-researched dossier last year, troubling accounts, corroborated by audio and video evidence of 3,432 cases f war crimes perpetrated by senior officers of the Indian occupation forces since 1989.

Pakistan’s ambassador said his country calls upon the Security Council to take cognizance of the compelling evidence of these crimes and to hold accountable those Indian officials and personnel responsible for such crimes and grave breaches of international humanitarian law.

“India is a not a victim of terrorism. It is the mothership of terrorism in South Asia. It isPakistan which has suffered from terrorism in operations that have been conducted since 2014,” he asserted.

“We have cleared our territories of terrorist groups. Our major challenge has been the continued terrorist attacks, financed, sponsored and supported by our neighbour India, including from the territory of Afghanistan. With the active support of the Indian intelligence agencies, the TTP and JUA terrorist groups have been involved over 1,000 cross-border terrorist attacks against Pakistani military and civilian targets in 2020 alone.”