UNITED NATIONS: It was
regrettable that decades after adoption of UN resolutions‚ the people of Jammu
and Kashmir remain deprived of their fundamental rights, railed Ambassador
Masood Khan, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN), as he brought
up the issue of Kashmir in the UN General Assembly on Monday.
Pakistan highlighted the fact that
the people of Jammu and Kashmir have been denied the right of
self-determination for close to six decades now.
He was presenting Pakistan’s viewpoint at the UN Third Committee
Session on Right of People to Self-determination and elimination of racism‚
racial discrimination‚ xenophobia and related intolerance.
Khan said Kashmiris “continue to
face widespread repression and gross and consistent violations of human rights,
which have been documented by independent international human rights
organisations.”
The ambassador added that
Pakistan, UN and people of Jammu and Kashmir are agreed to hold plebiscite in
Kashmir, only India has to say yes and engage with Pakistan to resolve the
Kashmir issue.
“The struggle of the people of
Jammu and Kashmir cannot be characterised as terrorism. Nor can ‘epicenter of
terrorism’ be wrongly located by India to Pakistan, simply because it raises
the issue of Jammu and Kashmir in the United Nations,” he added.
Khan was referring to the
statement made by the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the UN at
the General Assembly in September.
“Pakistan is the worst victim of
terrorism, whose sources,
strategies and execution emanate from our immediate neighborhood. We demanded
that all networks to destabilise Pakistan through terror be dismantled
forthwith.”
Speaking at the meeting, the
ambassador said that discrimination on the basis of religion is one of the
contemporary forms of racism. He further added that Muslims around the world
had become a target of intolerance and discrimination because of condemnable
terrorist acts by some individuals and entities.
India dismisses Pakistan’s
Kashmir concerns
Speaking at the session after Pakistan, India dismissed
Pakistan’s attempt to raise the Kashmir issue at the UN General Assembly as
“unwarranted” and reasserted that the state remains an integral part of the
country, Press Trust of India reported.
India called Pakistan’s reference
to Kashmir issue at the UNGA as a distraction from the issue of the rights of
Palestinian people to self-determination that was being discussed in the
committee.
“We regret the unwarranted
reference made in this forum to the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir. Let me
be clear and reiterate that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India, and
references such as this only detract from the important cause of the
Palestinian people and their inalienable rights to self-determination,” said
visiting Member of Parliament from India P Rajeev.
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