Altaf Hamid Rao.
MIRPUR (AJK): The Jammu & Kashmir Peoples National Party chief Raja Zulfiqar Ahmed Advocate here Thursday has suggested to the government of Pakistan to take up the Kashmir issue in the United Nations Security Council with an offer of withdrawal of its troops from the soil to encourage the early peaceful settlement of the global issue in line with the resolutions of the august house of the world body – the UNSC.
“Such an exceptional step by Pakistan at the world forum would leave India to go no where except to force New Delhi to give a matching response to Pakistan through the withdrawal of her (Indian) occupying troops from the Indian-held Jammu & Kashmir under the spirit of the UN resolutions on Kashmirâ€, the Kashmiri leader added while talking to newsmen here on Thursday.
“The ugly face of India would herself be exposed in case of her denial of the above proposed offer for onward moving to hold plebiscite in the internationally-acknowledged disputed Himalayan Jammu & Kashmir stateâ€, Raja Zulfiqar said.
The Central Chairman of the JKPNP continued that since Pakistan has always been prepared to grant the right of self determination to the people of Jammu & Kashmir under the spirit of the UN Security Council’s resolutions and Islamabad repeatedly offered to New Delhi for meaningful dialogue to resolve the much-delayed issue – still lying in the agenda of the UN Security Council since over last seven decades, yet it is high time for Pakistan to knock the world fora (UN SC) with an emphasis to force India to move for the peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue without further loss of time, he urged.
Raja Zulfiqar Ahmed Advocate, also former President of District Bar Association Mirpur, continued that since UN SC resolutions on Kashmir unequivocally spoke of the grant of right of self determination to the people of Jammu & Kashmir state under the auspices of the United Nations, it was enjoined upon the world body to gradually move for ensuring the holding of free and fair plebiscite by forcing India, in particular, to be prepared for the same to pave the way for letting the people of Jammu and Kashmir decide about their destiny.
Strongly condemning the continued increased human rights abuses by the Indian occupational forces in Indian-occupied Jammu & Kashmir the JKPNP President said that India has, in fact, lost the occupied state from her hands following the Kashmiris successful indigenous struggle for liberation of the motherland from the Indian subjugation. India, he said, should read writing on the wall and immediately announce the withdrawal of her troops from the occupied territory to pave the way for holding of the plebiscite in entire Jammu & Kashmir state under the aegis of the UNO.
The Kashmiri leader also lambasted India for her nefarious move of changing the demography of Indian occupied Jammu & Kashmir through managing the permanent settlement of the Indian nationals (non-state subjects) belonging to various parts of India, in the Indian-held Jammu & Kashmir state.
Referring to a recent reported ironical photograph mix-up made by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Maleeha Lodhi, during her speech in the UN General Assembly on Saturday last, Raja Zulfiqar Ahmed said that diplomats should always be exceptionally alert and cautious while moving the global issues on the world forums to avert such mistakes.
The Kashmiri leader, however, accused India of hiding behind a picture to divert the world’s attention from the fast deteriorating situation on the ground in India-held Jammu & Kashmir – where the Indian occupational forces have unleashed the reign of state terrorism since past 70 years in general and the last 27 months in particular.
It may be recalled here that Lodhi, during her speech in the UN General Assembly on Saturday last, had ironically shared photographs of victims of pellet gun attacks ─ infamous for depriving victims of their sight ─ purportedly taken in Indian occupied Jammu & Kashmir. One of the photographs shown by Lodhi, however, stirred controversy when observers pointed out that it was a picture of a Palestinian girl injured by strikes in Gaza, taken by photographer Heidi Levine in 2014.
