India’s oppression in IIOJK decried at event in Pakistani consulate in New York
New York: Speakers at a large gathering held in New York to commemorate Kashmir Solidarity Day, urged the United Nations to pressurize India to allowing the Kashmiri people to exercise their United Nations-pledged right to self-determination to pave the way for peace in the region.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the speakers also denounced the tough tactics employed by Indian forces to crush the Kashmiri people’s freedom struggle and called for an end to the killings, while reaffirming full support for their cause, at the meeting that took place at the Pakistan Consulate General.
The speakers also took part in the solemn event included opinion leaders, scholars, students, journalists, prominent members of the Pakistani community, the Kashmiri Diaspora, and human rights defenders.
In his remarks, Consul General Aamer Ahmad Atozai highlighted the over-seven-decade-long sufferings of the Kashmiri people, who have been denied their fundamental rights. He underscored the United Nations’ commitment to hold a plebiscite to determine the wishes of the Kashmiri people, saying it is high time that Security Council resolutions were implemented. He also urged the participants to raise awareness about the plight of Kashmiri people under Indian occupation.
The speakers included Carin Jodha Fischer, a German-American political activist; Dr Sima Karetnaya, UN Global Peace Ambassador in the US; and Kashmiri leaders and activists: Sardar Sawar Khan, Dr Asif Rehman, Zameer Ahmad, Taj Khan, and Saghir Khan.
They expressed concern over India’s highhandedness in Kashmir and called for international intervention to end the gross human rights violations in the disputed territory. The only way to lasting peace in South Asia was to allow the Kashmiri people to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination, as pledged to them in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, they said.
The speakers also called for the immediate cognizance of the worsening human rights situation in Indian-occupied Kashmir and to listen to the voices of the oppressed Kashmiris, as well as to help them in their just and legitimate struggle for liberation from India’s yoke.