NEW DELHI, Sept 27: The Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly criticised Indian government actions in Kashmir drawing a parallel between Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine.
Addressing the UN General Assembly on Friday, Mr Sharif said, “Similarly, like the people of Palestine, the people of Jammu and Kashmir too, have struggled for a century for their freedom and right to self-determination,” he said, accusing India of reneging on its commitments to implement U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Mr Sharif accused India of extra-judicial killings, prolonged curfews in the region and other “draconian measures.” “In a classic settler colonial project, India is seizing Kashmiri lands and properties and settling outsiders into occupied Jammu and Kashmir in their nefarious design to transform the Muslim majority into a minority,” he said.
Mr Sharif highlighted the expansion in India’s military capabilities and said India’s leadership had “threatened to cross the Line of Control.” “Mr President, let me state in no uncertain terms that Pakistan will respond most decisively to any Indian aggression,” he said, thumping the lectern.
In a segment on Islamophobia, he identified what he termed the “Hindu supremacist agenda” in India as the “most alarming manifestation” of the issue, saying it was aimed at subjugating Indian Muslims and the “obliteration of India’s Islamic heritage.” It is normal practice for Pakistan’s representative to raise issues around India each year during the U.N. General Assembly debates. India normally responds, exercising its ‘right of reply.’
(Manas Dasgupta)