Pakistan continues to internationally highlight the alarming situation in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK) in the wake of India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019.
As part of this ongoing effort, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has addressed a comprehensive letter to the President of the UN Security Council and the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 10 May 2022. The letter apprises them, in particular, of India’s sinister ploy of reducing the representation of Muslims through the unlawful ‘delimitation’ exercise in IIOJK. The Foreign Minister underscored that these illegal measures constitute a flagrant violation of international law including the UN Charter and the relevant Security Council resolutions on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, and were ipso facto illegal and null and void.
The Foreign Minister also highlighted India’s gross, systematic and widespread human rights violations in IIOJK and drew particular attention to the ongoing Indian efforts to further marginalize, disempower and divide the beleaguered Kashmiri population. He noted that this was a shameless assault on the identity, fundamental rights of the people, and culture of IIOJK, and was designed to pave the way for installing yet another puppet government in IIOJK that is pliant to BJP-RSS combined with, and panders to its “Hindutva” ideology. He also underscored that under the garb of this inherently ill-intentioned process, India had attempted to carry out demographic engineering in the IIOJK in a bid to convert Muslim majority constituencies into Hindu-majority ones. Through the sham ‘Delimitation’ exercise, it is obvious that India is aiming to speed up the process of demographic changes that it has already set in motion through measures such as doling out millions of domicile certificates, offering jobs, and putting up land in IIOJK for sale to non-Kashmiris, in complete disregard to the international law and relevant Geneva Conventions.
The Foreign Minister urged the UN Security Council to:
-Take immediate cognizance of the grave implications of the illegal ‘delimitation’ of IIOJK by India;
-Remind India that Jammu and Kashmir remains an internationally recognized dispute pending resolution and that India should refrain from bringing about any illegal demographic changes in the occupied territory in contravention to international law, the Geneva Conventions, and India’s own obligations under the relevant UN Security Council resolutions;
-Compel and counsel India to halt its human rights abuses against the people of IIOJK and cease forthwith the endemic political persecution and economic exploitation of the Kashmiris;
-Prevail upon India to let the people of IIOJK determine their own future through a free and fair plebiscite under the United Nations auspices as enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
It is time for the international community to raise their voice for justice and human rights. The people of Kashmir have suffered for more than seven decades. Since 5 August 2019, Kashmir is under siege and practically facing an undeclared curfew. Almost one million troops are deployed to suppress 8 million Kashmiris. The draconian Laws and unlimited powers delegated to security forces have made the lives of Kashmiris a misery and insult to humankind.
Pakistan will continue to stand with the oppressed and oppose the aggressors. Political and moral support will highlight the cause of Kashmir in the whole world. On the other hand, India must have learned that despite using unlimited and excessive force, it could not control Kashmir in the last seven decades, and it will never be able to gain control over Kashmir in the future. The best way of face-saving for India is to leave Kashmir for Kashmiris, the sooner the better.
