Let me begin by thanking the Permanent Mission of Norway for organizing this important High-Level debate on the "Protection of civilians in armed conflict: War in cities - protection of civilians in urban settings", says a press release received here today from New York.
2. We also thank the Secretary-General, President of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) and other panelists for their insightful briefings.
Mr. President,
3. Civilians have always been the main victims of war, subjected to mass extermination, indiscriminate attacks on their cities, deportations, hostage taking, pillage and internment, which often takes a high toll of civilian life.
4. Protecting civilians during armed conflict is therefore a cornerstone of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). The question is: How to protect civilians when the suppression of civilians is the very object of a military’s operations? This is so when colonial and foreign occupation forces resort to the forcible denial of the right of peoples to self-determination and attempt to perpetuate their illegal occupation.
Mr. President,
5. This is vividly illustrated in Indian Illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). On 21 January 1989, Indian occupied forces killed 52 Kashmiri civilians in the infamous Gawkadal massacre in Srinagar. Since then, they have killed 96,000 Kashmiris; widowed around 23,000 women; raped over 11250 women and girls; and destroyed over 100,000 dwellings, including schools and houses.
6. Since 5 August 2019, 900,000 Indian troops have been stationed in IIOJK – in every city, town, village and neighbourhood – to impose what India’s leaders have themselves ominously called a "final solution" for Jammu and Kashmir. They have resorted to "cordon and search" operations and fake "encounters" to extra judicially kill innocent Kashmiri youth; imposed collective punishments to destroy and burn entire Kashmiri neighborhoods, urban centers and villages; used live ammunition against civilian protestors, including "pellet guns" which have blinded hundreds of Kashmiri children; arbitrarily detained 13,000 young Kashmiri boys, many of whom have been tortured; and are in the process of changing the demography of occupied Kashmir from a Muslim majority State to a Hindu majority territory.
7. Pakistan has released a comprehensive and well-researched Dossier last year covering accounts – corroborated by audio and video evidence of 3432 cases of war crimes perpetrated by senior officers of the Indian occupying forces since 1989.
Mr. President,
8. We call on the Security Council to take cognizance of the compelling evidence of these crimes and to hold accountable those Indian officials and personnel responsible for such crimes and grave breaches of the IHL.
Mr. President,
9. India is not a victim of terrorism. It is the mothership of terrorism in South Asia.
10. It is Pakistan which counter terrorism operations since 2014 have cleared our territory of terrorist groups.
11. Our major challenge has been the continued terrorist attacks, financed, sponsored, and supported by our neighbour, India, including from the territory of Afghanistan.
12. With the active support of Indian intelligence agencies, TTP and JUA were involved in over 1000 cross-border terrorist attacks against Pakistani military and civilian targets in 2020 alone.
13. India has funded and supported UN Security Council listed terrorist entities to carry out cross-border terrorist attacks against Pakistani military and civilian targets, including on the Karachi Stock Exchange on 29 June 2020; in Lahore on 23 June 2021; and the killing of Chinese and Pakistani engineers in Dasu on 14 July 2021.
14. And, as for Genocide, I would like to draw attention to the anti-Muslim pogrom in New Delhi in February 2020; the almost daily cow-lynching and targeted killing of Muslims; the 400 attacks against Christian churches in India last year and the open calls for genocide against the Muslims of India issued by extremist Hindutva two weeks ago.
15. The Security Council must heed Mr. Gregory Stanton, the Head of Genocide Watch, who warned last week that “genocide can happen in India.”
I thank you.
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