At UN, Pakistan calls out Indian sponsorship of terrorism in South Asia

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 24 (DNA): Pakistani diplomat Saima Saleem has
categorically rejected India’s allegations about Pakistan’s involvement
in terrorist acts, citing instances of the Indian sponsorship of
terrorism and aggression against all its neighbours that makes New Delhi
the “principle perpetrator, sponsor, financier and abettor” of terrorism
in South Asia.

“The myth of terrorism against Pakistan, created and propagated by
India, cannot and will not hide the stark reality that people of
Pakistan, the Indian Illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and
its own minorities are victims of its state-sponsored terrorism,” Saima
Saleem, counselor at the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations, told
the UN General Assembly on Friday night.

Saima Saleem was exercising her right of reply to Indian delegate Mijito
Vinito’s allegations about Pakistan sponsoring cross-border terrorism
and accusing it of making ” untenable territorial claims against
neighbours”– an obvious reference to Jammu and Kashmir.

The Indian delegate made that statement in response to Prime Minister
Shehbaz Sharif speech to the 193-member Assembly in which the Pakistani
leader drew world community’s attention to New Delhi’s grave human
rights violations in occupied Kashmir and called for resolving the
UN-recognized dispute in accordance with Security Council resolutions.

In her remarks, the Pakistani delegate said that India has sponsored and
perpetrated terrorism and aggression against all its neighbours by
creating terrorist groups, and destabilizing and blockading neighbours
to do its strategic bidding.

In Pakistan, she said India was funding and supporting terrorist
organizations like the TTP (Tehreek-e-Tliban and the BLA (Balochistan
Liberation Army), whose attacks have resulted in the killing of
thousands of innocent Pakistanis.

“Since the Hindutva inspired RSS-BJP Government’s unilateral and illegal
actions on August 5, 2019 termed as ‘Final Solution’, India’s 900,000
occupation forces in occupied Kashmir – the ‘densest’ occupation in
history – have escalated their oppression of 8 million Kashmiri men,
women and children in the world’s largest ‘open-air prison’,” the
Pakistani delegate said.

She accused India of extra-judicial killings in fake encounters;
enforced disappearances of 15,000 young Kashmiri boys; incarceration of
the entire Kashmiri leadership; bringing about demographic change by
issuing millions of fake domicile certificates to non-Kashmiris;
gerrymandering of electoral boundaries for reducing Muslim
representation; curbing religious freedom and media and internet
blackout.”

Since 1989, Indian occupation forces had committed over one lakh
extra-judicial killings, around 162,000 cases of arbitrary arrests and
torture, over 25,000 pellet gun injuries, 11,250 cases of rape and gang
rape, and 8652 unmarked mass graves, attesting to the genocide which is
being committed in occupied Kashmir.

“Yet, we fear that these discoveries of Indian crimes are but the tip of
the iceberg,” Saleem said. “If India has nothing to hide, it must grant
access to Occupied Jammu and Kashmir to human rights mechanisms, accept
a UN Commission of Inquiry and agree to implement the Security Council
resolutions.”

Highlighting India’s reign of terror against its minorities, the
Pakistani delegate said, Islamophobia has penetrated into the very
foundations of the Indian state, where 200 million defenceless Muslims
are lynched by cow vigilantes and killed in pogroms led by RSS
“brown-short” thugs.

Noting that public calls of the desecration of mosques is the state
agenda, she said adding that rich Muslim culture and heritage is being
destroyed and history being re-written.

The Citizenship Amendment Act aims to purge India of its Muslim
minority, she said, pointing out that Hijab is banned; anti-Muslim
social media trolls of “Corona Jihad” rule the internet; the ruling
RSS-BJP leaders call Muslims “termites” and the “green virus”. Also,
houses and shops of Muslims are being bulldozed; and derogatory remarks
against Holy Prophet (PBUH) are being made by top leadership of RSS-BJP
dispensation as a matter of state policy to hurt feelings and sentiments
of not only Indian Muslims but also of Muslims across the world.

“Other minorities in India, including Christians, Sikhs and Dalits, also
face persecution and churches and gurdwaras are torched by Hindu
fundamentalists,” Saleem said.

“Let me emphasize that no quantum of brutality of Indian occupation
forces can break the will, perseverance and courage of the Kashmiris to
demand their inalienable right to self-determination in accordance with
Security Council resolutions. “Like Martin Luther King, the Kashmiris
also have a “dream” that they shall see the dawn of freedom one day,”
she added.