- “Envoy calls India’s demand for democracy empty under RSS-BJP rule”.
- He says India funds terrorist groups like TTP and BLA to destabilize Pakistan.
- Pakistan’s measured response prevented an escalation after the Indian aggression.
Pakistan launched a strong rebuttal against India at the United Nations, exposing what it called New Delhi’s “recycled script of distortions” on Jammu and Kashmir.
Speaking at the Fourth Meeting of the Committee on Decolonization Matters, Asif Khan, diplomat at Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the UN, said India’s attempts to mislead the world about the status of the disputed territory had failed to obscure the reality of its occupation and abuses.
“I am forced to take the floor to respond to the disinformation-laden comments of the representative of India. Every year, India comes to this august forum with a recycled script of distortions. Today is no different,” Khan said in opening his statement.
He stated that “the United Nations not only has the right but also the obligation to discuss the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” adding that the territory “has never been an integral part of India” and remains “an internationally recognized disputed territory whose final status must be determined by a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations.”
Khan reminded the forum that “India itself had taken the matter to the Council, but now refuses to honor its solemn commitments under international law and the United Nations Charter.”
Referring to the 1960 Declaration, he said it “decrees that ‘all peoples’ subject to foreign subjugation have the right to self-determination,” a right also included in the United Nations Charter and key international covenants.
Highlighting the scale of Indian militarization in the region, he said: “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.”
He accused India of “branding the just struggle of the people of Jammu and Kashmir as terrorism” while refusing to “introspect to find the real reasons behind the massive resistance in the occupied territory.”
“India’s retreat from its obligations under UN Security Council resolutions, its intransigence in denying the people of Kashmir their fundamental rights, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, mass incarcerations, sexual violence and demographic engineering are the real reasons for the indigenous freedom movement,” he said.
“Since August 2019, India has accelerated its settler colonial project in flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”
Khan also accused India of “trying to divert attention from its own egregious conduct, criminal behavior and perpetration of terrorism,” calling it “the leading sponsor of state terrorism in the region with a dubious distinction of extraterritorial killings.”
He accused India of funding and directing “terrorist proxies like the TTP, BLA and Majeed Brigade, whose attacks have killed thousands of innocent civilians in Pakistan.”
He described India’s claim to be the world’s largest democracy as “hollow”, saying it had become “the world’s biggest producer of misinformation and intolerance”.
He said the ruling RSS-BJP ideology had “institutionalized Islamophobia and turned the persecution of minorities into state policy,” adding that “numerous international human rights organizations continue to document India’s systematic abuses.”
Warning of dangers to peace, Khan said India’s “reckless behavior has jeopardized regional security,” referring to Pakistan’s “unprovoked aggression earlier this year against civilians, including women and children.”
“Pakistan exercised its inherent right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, responding in a measured manner and directed only at military targets,” he said, adding that “India suffered significant losses, including multiple downed aircraft.”
He concluded that “India’s denials and distortions cannot erase the simple truth: Jammu and Kashmir remains a disputed territory.”
“The people of Kashmir have waited for more than seven decades to exercise the right to self-determination entrusted to them by the UN,” Khan said. “Pakistan will continue to expose India’s hypocrisy, oppose its state terrorism and support the just and legitimate struggle of the people of Kashmir for justice, dignity and freedom.”
