Ambassador
Maleeha Lodhi warned India at the UN today against carrying out its threat to
conduct strikes across the Line of Control, saying that Pakistan will give an
effective and matching response, says a press release received here today from
New York.
Speaking
in the debate on the Secretary General’s Report on the Work of the
Organization, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN said, “Do not underestimate
Pakistan's resolve and capacity to defend itself. Any aggression or
intervention will meet a matching and effective response from our armed forces
and the people of Pakistan”.
Dubbing
as false the Indian claim to have conducted a so-called "surgical
strike" across the Line of Control, Ambassador Lodhi told the world body
that such claims and India's repeated threats to conduct such
"strikes" across the LOC, constitute “flagrant violations of the UN
Charter's injunction against the use or threat of use of force”.
“This
provides Pakistan sufficient reason to respond in exercise of its right to
self-defense. By making such false claims and blatant threats, are India's
leaders attempting to provoke a conflict with Pakistan?” she asked.
She
called on the world body not to ignore these open threats to use force by
India, saying that the international community should take urgent action to
prevail on India to halt its provocations against Pakistan.
She went
on to say that India resorts to daily violations of the ceasefire along the
Line of Control in Kashmir to cover up its crimes against the Kashmiri people,
and to divert world attention.
Saying
that human rights was the core of the Secretary General’s call for prevention
and sustaining peace, Ambassador Lodhi pointed out that these universal ideals
are being violated, in plain sight of the international community, in
Palestine, in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir, and elsewhere.
The
continuing Indian occupation of Jammu and Kashmir, she said, is a travesty of
justice, law and morality. “The dispute has been on the Agenda of the Security
Council for almost 70 years. But the people of Indian occupied Jammu and
Kashmir still await the implementation of numerous Security Council
resolutions, which promised them their inalienable right of
self-determination”, she added.
The
Pakistani envoy praised the heroic and popular Kashmiri struggle against Indian
occupation despite the brutal and indiscriminate use of force to suppress this
indigenous freedom movement. “Hundreds of innocent, unarmed Kashmiris have been
martyred in the recent wave of protests; countless others have been blinded and
maimed by pellet guns, in what has widely been described as the first ‘mass
blinding’ in human history”, Ambassador Lodhi told the 193-member General
Assembly.
She also
told the world body that Indian atrocities in Jammu and Kashmir are well documented
by international human rights organizations. “India does not deny these
actions. It defends them. It does not express remorse on the acts of the
perpetrators of these war crimes. It rewards them with national honors”, she
added.
Ambassador
Lodhi also spoke about Pakistan’s military campaign against terrorism and
called for addressing this global phenomenon comprehensively and in all forms,
including State terrorism.
She also
called for addressing the underlying causes of global terrorism, saying that
poverty and ignorance are part of the problem, as are social and political
exclusion, foreign intervention and the denial of economic and political
justice.
Dr. Lodhi
concluded by assuring Pakistan’s firm and abiding commitment to this ‘Parliament
of Man’ , a reference to the UN General Assembly, and to work collectively
for a better and brighter future, for all humanity.