- Says it is time India allowed people of Jammu and Kashmir to exercise their right to self-determination in a free and fair UN supervised plebiscite
- Says Pakistan remains firmly committed in its moral, diplomatic and political support to the Kashmiris’ indigenous movement for self-determination
Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, while reacting to Indian Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj’s statement on Kashmir, said on Sunday that a verdict on the future of Kashmir can only be given by the people of Kashmir.
“Such a verdict on the future of Kashmir can only be given by the people of Kashmir and not by the External Affairs minister of India.”
Aziz said that the right to self-determination has been given to the people of Kashmir by the United Nations Security Council.
“It is high time that India allowed the people of Jammu and Kashmir to exercise this right through a free and fair UN supervised plebiscite,” said the foreign affairs advisor.
The two sides have engaged in a war of words in recent days over the longstanding issue of Kashmir. The Valley has been in the throes of an anti-India campaign since the death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.
Aziz further said the world will accept the decision taken by the Kashmiri people, and it is their choice to either integrate with Pakistan or India.
Swaraj had told Pakistan that its dream of Kashmir will not be realised ’till end of eternity’.
Swaraj had also disagreed with Pakistan terming Burhan Wani, a separatist commander, as a martyr and said Wani was a wanted terrorist.
“India cannot ignore the fact that over 200,000 Kashmiris participated in the funeral prayers of Burhan Muzaffar Wani in 50 different locations throughout the Indian-occupied Kashmir, despite strict curfew which still continues 15 days after Wani’s extrajudicial murder on July 8,” Aziz responded to Swaraj’s earlier statement.
“Let us not forget, as one Indian writer has reminded us, that not long ago the British labelled Indian freedom fighters as traitors and terrorists because at that time India was considered an integral part of the British Empire,” Aziz added.
Aziz assured the people of Kashmir that the government and the people of Pakistan remain firmly committed in their moral, diplomatic and political support to the Kashmiris’ indigenous movement for self-determination and resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions on Kashmir.
‘DREAM ON’:
Swaraj on Saturday said Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif must understand that “Kashmir can never become a part of Pakistan”.
The Indian minister also accused Pakistan of backing militants with the help of UN-designated terrorists and notorious figures such as Hafiz Saeed, in order to turn the valley into a living hell.
“The whole of Jammu and Kashmir belongs to India. You will never be able to make this heaven on earth a haven for terrorists,” Swaraj said, flanked by Ministers of State M J Akbar and General (r) V K Singh.
‘WAITING FOR THE DAY…’:
A day earlier, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, while addressing his supporters after his party’s victory in AJK elections, had said that Pakistan is waiting for the day when Kashmir becomes a part of Pakistan.
Sharif asked his supporters during a rally in Muzaffarabad “not to forget those in Kashmir who are sacrificing their lives for their movement for freedom”.
“Their movement for freedom cannot be stopped and it will be successful. You are aware of how they are being beaten and killed. All our prayers are with them and we are waiting for the day Kashmir becomes (part of) Pakistan,” Sharif was quoted as saying.
SEND A FACT-FINDING MISSION TO KASHMIR, PAK TO UNHCR:
Pakistan has been reaching out to the international community over the last two weeks and even observed a Black Day last week against the brutalities of the Indian security forces against the people of Kashmir.
Last week, Pakistan said it had approached the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to send a fact-finding team to Kashmir to investigate the human rights violations and recent killings of innocent people.
“We have requested the UNHRC to send a fact-finding mission to Kashmir (in India) and probe recent killings of innocent Kashmiris,” the PM’s adviser had said, while rejecting India’s assertion that Kashmir was an internal matter which Pakistan was interfering in.
UPTICK IN VIOLENCE:
The current episode of violence in Indian-held Kashmir is the worst civilian violence to hit the restive region since 2010, when mass protests broke out against Indian rule.
Wani, a 22-year-old commander of Kashmir’s largest pro-independence militant group Hizbul Mujahideen, was killed along with two other separatists during a brief gun battle with Indian government forces.
Wani joined the HM group at the age of just 15, and was viewed as a hero by many in Kashmir. The state’s former chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted after his death that he had become the “new icon of Kashmir’s disaffected”.
Witnesses said tens of thousands attended his funeral despite a curfew imposed by Indian authorities, chanting independence slogans and firing pistol shots in his honour.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called an emergency meeting to discuss escalating violence in India-held Kashmir amid anti-India protests that have left almost 50 people dead and hundreds injured in clashes with authorities.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office has also condemned the violence in Indian-held Kashmir and the extrajudicial killing of Wani.
HM is one of several groups that for decades have been fighting around half a million Indian troops deployed in the region, calling for independence for Kashmir or a merger with Pakistan.
Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since 1947, but both claim the territory in its entirety.
Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting since 1989.
