Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday urged the world community, especially the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), to come forward and help defuse heightened tensions between Pakistan and India over Kashmir dispute.
“If ever the UNSC needs to move it’s now… there’s potential of the unthinkable,” he said while addressing a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday.
Highlighting the plight of eight million Kashmiris who are suffering “in an open jail” in India-held Kashmir (IHK), he warned against the possible massacre of residents once the curfew is lifted.
The premier shared his conversations with various people he met in New York who had relayed to him their stories of not being able to contact their relatives and family members.
“We know of mass arrests. We know that the entire leadership of Kashmir – even those leaders who were pro-India – are now somewhere in jail in India. We know that young people, boys have been picked up. We know that hospitals aren’t functioning,” he said.
“My whole point of coming here was to highlight this. This is unprecedented in this day and age.”
The prime minister said that India’s claim that this is an internal issue and that the world should stay out of it is “nonsense”.
He reminded the media that there are 11 UN Security Council resolutions recognising the fact that Kashmir is a disputed territory which give the right of self-determination to the people of Kashmir through a plebiscite.
He said that the fear now is that the BJP-led government are set on changing the demography of the region, an action tantamount to “war crimes” under the Geneva conventions.
He said that a bigger worry was what will happen after the curfew imposed by India in occupied Kashmir is lifted.
“I fear that after the curfew is lifted, there would be a massacre” by the 900,000 Indian troops deployed there said the premier.
“I also fear that whatever happens in Kashmir, India would blame Pakistan for it,” he added, referring to India’s blame on Pakistan for the February attack on its military convoy by a Kashmiri boy.
“I went on air and said if you give us any proof, we will take action. Before any proof could come the Indian jets arrived; they bombed us,” he said.
The premier regretted that following retaliation by Pakistan Air Force which downed Indian jets and captured their pilot, the peace gesture shown by Pakistan to immediately return the air force officer was “taken as weakness”.
The prime minister reminded all those listening that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who subscribes to the RSS ideology, was responsible for the massacre in Gujrat.
“Unfortunately India today is governed by a racist, Hindu supremacist party RSS which was banned in India […] Just Google it and you will find that [Benito] Mussolini (former prime minister of Italy) was their hero.”
“When I came to power, I called Modi and said that we have similar problems […] they tried to push us into the blacklist of FATF,” said the prime minister. “Their agenda came forward on August 5,” he added, referring to the day when Modi issued a presidential decree revoking Kashmir’s autonomous status.
Imran said that Modi had remarked that “Pakistan should stop terrorism” but questioned what the justification for jailing eight million people was.
“What is happening to Kashmiris, is also a responsibility of the UN,” he said urging world leaders to not remain bystanders to the suffering of so many.
“Eight million people are locked inside for 50 days […] this has the potential to reach the unthinkable.”
“For what purpose was the UN established?” he asked.
The premier also expressed his disappointment over the lukewarm response shown thus far by the global community over the issue.
“How can the global community remain silent when 8 million people are being treated worse than animals?” he asked.
“If 8 million Europeans or Jews or Americans […] leave 8 million, if only 8 Americans were under siege, what would be the response of the international community [then]?” he asked.
Commenting over rising tensions between Pakistan and India, PM Imran said he is alarmed by the standoff and spoke to the world leaders, including the US, UK, Germany and France.
“This is the time the world needs to act, because this is the first time after Cuban crisis that the two nuclear powers have come face to face,” he remarked.
