Qureshi urges India to take back Aug 5 move

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday, once again, urged India to take back its unilateral action of August 5, 2019 in Jammu and Kashmir, and called upon New Delhi to end oppression and state-terrorism in the occupied territory.

“India must respect the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and let Kashmiris exercise their right to self-determination,” the foreign minister said in his address at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute.

Qureshi said India’s “power drunkenness” had led its forces to embark upon a “Hitlerian final solution” for Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). He called the August 5 decision the beginning of intensification of the tsunami of Indian state-terrorism.

He mentioned that the resolutions of the UNSC were cast aside and no tool of cruelty was deemed excessive by the world’s “largest democracy”.

The foreign minister said two years on, the Kashmiris continued to languish in the “largest concentration camp on the planet”.

“On top of that, they are being held incommunicado. They do not have access to regular or even emergency medical facilities — a plight that even the worst criminals don’t face,” said Pakistan’s top diplomat. He said even COVID-19, which generated unprecedented empathy in the human race, had done nothing to bring even an iota of relief to the Kashmiris.

India, he said, is trying to eliminate Kashmiris altogether as the young men were disappearing without a trace.

Qureshi also slammed the new domicile rules and land laws introduced in IIOJK, saying that he believes the laws are being used to reengineer the region’s demography.

“In its delusion of grandeur, India expected the world and more pertinently Pakistan, to acquiesce,” said the foreign minister. He said Pakistan, guided by Prime Minister Imran Khan’s clarity, stood its ground and focused on rousing the international community.

“I am happy to note that our efforts have not been in vain. The security council has discussed the Jammu and Kashmir dispute thrice since August 2019,” noted Qureshi.

He said the world leaders, parliamentarians, media, humanists and civil society at large had understood that “beyond the smokescreen of Indian sophistry, lies Kashmiris’ perpetual nightmare”.

Qureshi said that the government of Pakistan was absolutely clear that it would continue to lend moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris.

He called upon the international community to exhort India to “treat Kashmiris like human beings”.

“This will pull out the dagger, which rankles in the heart of bilateral and regional peace and bodes ill for international peace and security,” he said, adding that it would also unlock the potential of South Asia.

India’s August 5 move

On August 5, 2019 India abrogated Articles 370 and 35-A of its Constitution that had guaranteed constitutional autonomy to occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

The Article 370 granted special autonomous status to occupied Kashmir. This ensured that all the provisions of the Indian Constitution applicable on other states would not be applied in the occupied territory.

On the other hand, the Article 35-A which stems from Article 370 was introduced through a Presidential Order in 1954. This article empowers the legislature of occupied Kashmir to define the state’s permanent residents and their special rights and privileges.

Under Article 35A, Indian citizens from other states could not purchase land or property in occupied Kashmir.