Pakistan’s permanent envoy to the United Nations Dr Maleeha Lodhi has said the Security Council’s meeting that Kashmir issue is not an internal matter of India but an international issue. All the 15 permanent and non-permanent member states attended the consultative session. The meeting was briefed on the latest developments and the dark human rights situation in Occupied Kashmir. This is not the last step and Pakistan will continue its efforts to peacefully resolve this issue. The Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, stated that the Kashmir issue has become an internationally recognized dispute, which should be tackled according to the UN charter. Members of the Security Council normally feel India and Pakistan should both abstain from unilateral action over Kashmir. The meeting was called against the backdrop of exacerbated tensions between Pakistan and India consequent to the annulment of Occupied Kashmir’s special status in the first week of August. India finished the autonomous status of the Muslim-majority territory on August 5, redoubling movement restrictions and cutting off phone and internet access to head off civil turmoil, and enkindling calls from Pakistan for the international community to interfere. Further, four Pakistan Army soldiers have also been martyred in unwarranted Indian fire along the LoC since Thursday which was avenged effectively resulting in the killing of five Indian troops. Prime Minister Imran Khan held a telephonic conversation with United States President Donald Trump and took him into confidence over United Nations Security Council meeting on India’s unlawful Kashmir change. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi stated the Prime Minister also approached out to four out of five heads of permanent member states of the Security Council over the matter. US President Donald Trump talked by phone on Friday to Prime Minister Imran Khan and pressed that Pakistan deal with India to calm tensions in the region of Jammu and Kashmir. The US President forwarded the significance of India and Pakistan diminishing tensions through bilateral dialogue regarding the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan lauded the discussion in the UNSC on the situation in India-held Kashmir as an immense move advance for the Kashmiri struggle which is now said to have come back in the international centre of attention. OIC members in the recent past and participated in a meeting of the organization in Jeddah and discussed the issue with them. As a consequent OIC said the people of occupied Kashmir were facing the scarcity of food and medicines and not being able to reach hospitals owing to curfew. The demand for lifting the curfew is not coming from Pakistan, but from the entire Muslim world. OIC hoped that the United Nations Security Council will also devote attention to the voice raised by them. The OIC has noted with concern the reports of stopping of religious freedoms of Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir, including full lockdown even on the happy occasion of Eid, not allowing congregations and restricting Muslims from observing their religious rituals. Rejection of religious rights represents a grave violation of the international human rights law and is an insult to Muslims across the world. Thus the OIC has pressed the Indian authorities to safeguard protection of the rights of Kashmiri Muslims and the exercise of their religious rights without any obstacle. The OIC has also exhorted the international societies including the United Nations and other requisite bodies, to hasten efforts for a negotiated settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute on the basis of appropriate UN Security Council resolutions.
Pakistan had observed a black day on India’s Independence Day on Aug 15 and protest rallies were held across the country and Azad Jammu and Kashmir denouncing the Indian aggression and oppression in the held valley. Prime Minister Khan also approached several world leaders and informed them of India’s latest actions, including cancellation of Article 370 of its constitution that changed the position of occupied Kashmir. Imran Khan pressed the nation to remain united on the issue of Kashmir. He said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government would fail to achieve its evil intentions in the occupied valley. The autocratic, Hindu hardliner Modi government should have knowledge that while armies, radical and terrorists can be pushed down by superior forces; but past records tells us that when a nation unites in a freedom struggle and does not afraid of death, no power can hinder it from accomplishing its objective. He said that Hindutva creed of the Modi-led government with its imperialistic strategy in Indian Occupied Kashmir will fail unfortunately in its effort to choke the Kashmiri liberation struggle.
As reported by the Kashmir Media Service several millions of Kashmiris have been denied of their liberties and fundamental rights during the past 15 days. Internet broadband, telephones and TV channels all the time remained broken. The occupied territory remained shut off from the remaining world. People were denied of essential commodities like baby food and life-saving medicines. No way was given to patients to hospitals and the territory was giving the dismal picture of a humanitarian disaster. The Kashmir Council Europe arranged a protest demonstration in front of the Indian Embassy in Brussels to indicate the Indian Independence Day as black day. President of London-based Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights has pressed Prime Minister Imran Khan to reaffirm Pakistan’s suggestion to the United Nations Security Council for taking measure to ensure deployment of UN forces in occupied Kashmir. As reported by the IPHRC, these unlawful and unwarranted administrative measures had restricted Kashmiris from performing their religious rites, a shameless violation of the right to freedom of religion. The Amnesty International has pressed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to right away lift the communication blackout, imposed in Indian Held Kashmir since August 5.