Pakistan Urges UN To Implement Its Resolutions On Kashmir

Pakistan's foreign minister Wednesday urged the president of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and the UN secretary general to ensure full implementation of the UN resolutions on Kashmir and take notice of the Indian moves to further impose "illegal and unilateral" measures in Jammu and Kashmir.

In a letter addressed to the UN leaders, Shah Mehmood Qureshi conveyed Islamabad's "grave" concern on reports indicating that India may be contemplating "division, bifurcation and additional demographic changes in the occupied territory," according to Foreign Ministry's statement.

Qureshi drew the top UN officials' attention to India's "continued military siege" of the valley, which has continued for over 22 months "to suppress the Kashmiris' legitimate demands through a massive campaign of repression including gross and systematic violations of human rights."

He was referring to New Delhi's controversial step to scrap the long-standing semi-autonomous status of the Himalayan valley in August 2019, which prompted Islamabad to downgrade its diplomatic relations, and suspend trade with New Delhi.

Highlighting the issuance of fake domicile certificates to the non-Kashmiris in an attempt to "change" the region's demography, Qureshi underscored that "all the unilateral and illegal actions taken by India in Occupied Kashmir since 1951, including the measures initiated on and after Aug. [5], 2019, and any additional unilateral changes that India may introduce in the future, are violations of international law including the UNSC resolutions and the 4th Geneva Convention, and ipso facto null and void."

Stressing that Kashmiris have "vociferously" rejected the "illegal measures" imposed by India, he called upon the UNSC to fulfill its responsibility to ensure full implementation of its resolutions on the long-simmering dispute.

He also urged the UNSC to call upon India to end its "campaign of repression" in Jammu and Kashmir and reverse all its "illegal" actions, including those initiated on and after Aug. 5, 2019, and to "cease and desist from imposing any additional unilateral changes in the occupied territory."

Qureshi reaffirmed Islamabad's desire for peaceful relations with all its neighbors, including India, observing that a just settlement of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with relevant UNSC resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people is essential for durable peace and stability in South Asia.

Now, the onus is on India to create an environment for result-oriented engagement with Pakistan, he went on to argue.

Qureshi has been regularly addressing letters to the UNSC, and the UN Secretary General in order to keep the UN fully informed of the "grave situation in the territory occupied by India", and to remind the world body of its responsibility for peaceful and just settlement of the lingering Kashmir dispute.

-Disputed region

Kashmir is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of the region is also controlled by China.

Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars – in 1948, 1965, and 1971 – two of them over Kashmir.

Some Kashmiri groups have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights groups, thousands of people have been killed and tortured in the conflict since 1989. -