Dr. Asad M. Khan, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, participated in a Global 360 webcast series titled “Pakistan: Regional Peace, Kashmir and Coronavirus” organized by The Washington Diplomat. The discussion was moderated by Anna Gawel, Managing Editor of The Washington Diplomat, says a press release received here today from Washington DC.
Ambassador Khan underlined the grave humanitarian situation in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. He said that Kashmiris were now enduring a “double lockdown” as India had used the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse to intensify the brutal repression it had already unleashed in Occupied Kashmir since its illegal actions of August 5, 2019. India was holding 8 million Kashmiris incommunicado during a raging pandemic while continuing to suppress their struggle for self-determination through arbitrary arrests and disappearances, torture and the use of pellet guns.
India had now promulgated an ordinance to effect demographic change in the disputed territory, another violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and international laws, including the Fourth Geneva Convention. Occupied Kashmir was the testing ground for the BJP’s Hindu majoritarian agenda, which was now being implemented across India.
Ambassador Khan urged the international community to take note of the gross human rights violations taking place in Occupied Kashmir. He warned that the unresolved nature of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and India’s alarming drift towards Hindu nationalism posed a grave threat to peace and stability in South Asia.
Ambassador Khan also highlighted the efforts made by the Government of Pakistan to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the Government of Pakistan has introduced a “smart lockdown” strategy to strike a balance between controlling the rising number of coronavirus infections and protecting the most economically vulnerable segments of society. To this end, the Government has provided a historic fiscal stimulus in order to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic on low-income households, women, and religious minorities, under its flagship “Ehsaas” poverty alleviation program.
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