On this day in 1949, the United Nations Commission for India & Pakistan (UNCIP) adopted the historic resolution calling for a free and impartial plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir under the auspices of the United Nations to enable its people to determine their political destiny. The resolution is an emblem of UN’s commitment to the longstanding struggle of the Kashmiri people to realize their right to self-determination. The United Nations, especially the Security Council, has an abiding responsibility to deliver on the promise it made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir 73 years ago received here today from NewYork.
It is a travesty that even today, India, the occupying power, in Jammu and Kashmir, continues its colonial oppression with complete impunity. India’s extremist Hindutva regime and the 900,000 troops it has deployed in occupied Kashmir are responsible for unleashing a brutal reign of terror through curfews and communications blackouts; incarceration of Kashmiri political leaders; illegal detention of thousands of Kashmiri youth; extra-judicial killings; violent suppression of peaceful Kashmiri protests, including by using pellet guns that have blinded even young children; and the demolition of entire neighborhoods and villages as a form of “collective punishment”.
The ominous “Final Solution” espoused by the Hindutva leadership seeks to crush the Kashmiri freedom movement and permanently alter the demography of the internationally recognized disputed State. Since 5 August 2019, India has issued millions of fake domiciles with the aim of eventually transforming the Muslim majority State into a Hindu majority territory. These actions constitute a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law including the Genocide Convention.
International human rights and humanitarian organizations must take cognizance of India’s crimes in Kashmir. India should be asked to immediately end its blatant oppression of the Kashmiri people, reverse all unilateral and illegal measures instituted since 5 August 2019 and halt the genocidal settler project in the occupied territory. At the same time, the international community must ensure that massive human rights violations and crimes committed by India do not go unpunished. The perpetrators must be held accountable.
The people and Government of Pakistan shall continue to extend moral, diplomatic and political support to the people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir until they realize their right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions which provides the only avenue for a just and lasting solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
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