Pakistan has condemned India for its lies and “a recycled script of distortions” on Jammu and Kashmir, urging the United Nations to take an action to resolve the issue. Asif Khan, a member of the Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the UN, stated this after he took the floor to respond to the disinformation-laden remarks of the representative of India. “Each year, India comes to this august forum with a recycled script of distortions.

Today is no different,” he said. Setting the record straight, he said the UN has not only the right, but the obligation to discuss the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. “Jammu and Kashmir is not, and has never been, an integral part of India. It is an internationally recognized disputed territory whose final status is to be determined through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations, as prescribed in multiple Security Council resolutions.

India itself had brought the matter to the Council, yet now refuses to honor its solemn commitments under international law and the Charter of the United Nations,” he said. “Second, let me reiterate that the Declaration of 1960 decrees that ‘all peoples’ under alien subjugation have the right to self-determination. The right is also enshrined in the first article of the United Nations Charter, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”

 He highlighted that in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, India maintains one of the densest military occupations in the world, deploying nearly 900,000 troops against an unarmed civilian population. “For long, India has tried to sell a false narrative, branding the just struggle of the people of Jammu & Kashmir as terrorism. India rather needs to introspect to find the real reasons behind the mass resistance in the occupied territory,” he explained. 

India’s backtracking from its obligations under the UNSC resolutions, its intransigence in denying the Kashmiri people their right to fundamental rights, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, mass incarcerations, sexual violence, and demographic engineering are the real reasons for the ‘indigenous’ freedom movement. Since August 2019, India has accelerated its settler-colonial project in flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, he added.

He pointed out that India seeks to deflect attention from its own notorious conduct, rogue behavior and perpetration of terrorism. “While it masquerades as a victim, the truth is that India is the principal sponsor of state terrorism in the region with a dubious distinction of extra territorial assassinations. It has financed and directed terrorist proxies such as TTP, BLA, and the Majeed Brigade, whose attacks have killed thousands of innocent civilians in Pakistan.” 

“Fifth, India’s claim to be the world’s largest democracy is hollow. In reality, it has become the world’s largest producer of disinformation and intolerance. The ruling RSS-BJP ideology has institutionalized Islamophobia and turned persecution of minorities into state policy. Numerous international human rights organizations continue to document India’s systematic abuses.” 

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)