Struggle of Kashmiris cannot be characterised as terrorism: Pakistani envoy tells UN

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 is the worst victim of terrorism, whose sources, strategies and execution emanate from our immediate neighborhood. We demanded that all networks to destabilize Pakistan through terror be dismantled forthwith.” said Masood Khan. PHOTO: NNI/FILE

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.