UNHCR meet: Pakistan returns red-faced, reiterates “third-party mediation” on J&K
- Gilgit-Baltistan part of India, says its human rights activist
- G-B also wants Ladakh-type Union Territory status
- Pak using G-B to fan terrorism
- Qureshi again wants “third-party intervention”
New Delhi: Facing utter failure on all global fronts over the Jammu and Kashmir issue, a desperate Pakistan returned with egg in the face from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) meeting held this week in Geneva, and has reiterated its demand for a “third- party mediation”.
Islamabad’s biggest embarrassment came when Gilgit-Baltistan’s human rights activist Senge H Sering described the Pakistan-occupied northern region as a “part of India”. He also said Pakistan has been using the Gilgit-Baltistan region to nurture terrorism.
Simultaneously, a number of human rights activists from Balochistan, Sindh, Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and other restive areas of Pakistan put up posters and festoons outside venue of the UNHRC meeting, accusing Islamabad with wanton violation of human rights in these ‘colonized’ regions, even as the Pakistanis unsuccessfully tried to garner international support on J&K.
“Gilgit-Baltistan is a part of India. Members of the United Nations need to realize that Pakistan has become a big stumbling block for last 70 years,” said Sering at the UNHRC meeting on Wednesday.
He accused Pakistan of changing demography of the region following revocation of the State Subject Rule in 1984. “You will be surprised that while Pakistan is trying to be the attorney of Kashmiri people, it has changed the demography in a huge manner,” he said.
At present, Gilgit-Baltistan is neither a province nor a state but has a semi-provincial status as part of POK, bordering Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, and J&K to the south.
“What India has done in Ladakh by giving them autonomy rights, giving them their own Union Territory, is what we also want and hope that Gilgit-Baltistan will also be able to have that kind of development and political model which India provides to Ladakh,” Sering asserted.
The Indian delegation, led by Vijay Thakur Singh, Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs, had strongly rebutted all the claims of Pakistan, made by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi who accused India of violating human rights in J&K after abrogation of its “special status” in August. India reasserted that the border state was an inalienable part of the country and that abrogation of its “special status” is an internal matter of New Delhi.
Reacting to total lack of response from anywhere, Qureshi once again claimed that a “third-party intervention” is the only way out to resolve the J&K issue. This, after US President Donald Trump has unsuccessfully tried, thrice, for mediation. Even UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the two sides to resolve the issue through talks.
On its part, India has always maintained that no talks with Pakistan are possible unless it wound up its state-sponsored and supported terror factory. In addition, New Delhi, has asserted that any talks, henceforth, will only be about the POK.
Qureshi said, ”Bilateral talks between India and Pakistan not possible. Third-party reconciliation is the only option between the two countries.”
Interestingly, on Tuesday, while talking to the media, Qureshi himself admitted that J&K was an “Indian state”, something that further caused acute embarrassment to Islamabad. This came on a day India strongly objected to Pakistan and China making reference to J&K in their joint statement wherein Beijing extended its support to Islamabad over Kashmir and China stood with Pakistan to safeguard its sovereignty, territorial integrity, independence, and national dignity.
In an aggressive diplomacy of engaging global opinion, India has relentlessly isolated Pakistan in all international forums, including the UN Security Council, the USA, France, Russia and even Muslim nations like Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Except China, no country has extended cooperation to Islamabad in its bid to malign India.
Unmindful of all-round snubbing on the J&K issue, Qureshi, in an interview to ‘Swiss TV’, claimed that the countries in the European Union are “quite aware of the scenario (in J&K) but they are not raising their voice due to “political reasons”. He, however, failed to spell out what these ‘political reasons’ were.
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