Imran Khan Blames Modi Govt for New Killings in Kashmir
Kashmir has always been a conflict area between India and Pakistan since 1947 when both these countries got freedom from the British rule.
By Rakesh Raman
The Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan has condemned the violence in Kashmir and blamed the Indian government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the killings of the innocent people of Kashmir.
In a strongly-worded tweet, Imran Khan said Monday that he strongly condemns the new cycle of killings of innocent Kashmiris in India-occupied Kashmir (IOK) by the Indian security forces.
He urged the Modi government to resolve the Kashmir dispute through dialogue in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
The relations between India and Pakistan seem to be further deteriorating as Imran Khan has become the Prime Minister (PM) of Pakistan. While the hostility between the two countries is increasing, Pakistan had warned last month that it is a nuclear power which is ready to respond to any aggression from the Indian side.
“Pakistan is ready to respond to any external aggression. Pakistan is a nuclear power and our desire for peace should not be misconstrued as our weakness,” DG Inter Services Public Relations Major General Asif Ghafoor had said.
Strongly condemn the new cycle of killings of innocent Kashmiris in IOK by Indian security forces. It is time India realised it must move to resolve the Kashmir dispute through dialogue in accordance with the UN SC resolutions & the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) October 22, 2018
Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan – who has become the Prime Minister (PM) of Pakistan – had also said that Pakistan would like to have good relations with India if India is ready to resolve the Kashmir issue which has been hanging fire for decades.
He blamed India for human rights violation in Kashmir which is a disputed territory between India and Pakistan. “Kashmir remains our biggest contention. The human rights violations are happening for over 30 years and the people of Kashmir have suffered massively,” Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had tweeted on his behalf.
A new report by the UN Human Rights Office also suggests that there is an urgent need to address past and ongoing human rights violations and abuses and deliver justice for all people in Kashmir, who for seven decades have suffered a conflict that has claimed or ruined numerous lives.
Recently, a veteran Congress leader Saifuddin Soz suggested that Kashmiris will “prefer to be independent” if they are given a choice to express their free will.
Soz endorsed former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s assessment over a decade ago that Kashmiris will prefer freedom instead of living as citizens of India. He also criticized Indian government for diluting Kashmir’s autonomy that was enshrined in Article 370 of the Constitution of India.
Meanwhile, the UN has demanded an unconditional access to Kashmir to record the extent of human rights violations in the troubled state. Similarly, irked by extreme human rights violations in Kashmir, a British Parliamentary Group has decided to release a report on this issue.
Chris Leslie MP, Chairperson All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Kashmir, chaired the meeting a few days ago to discuss the state of unrest in Kashmir.
Imran Khan added that the leadership of Pakistan and India now need to come to the table to resolve this issue and end the blame games.
“We are stuck at square one. If India comes and takes one step towards us, we will take two steps toward them. Right now it is one sided where India is constantly just blaming us,” Imran Khan complained.
Kashmir has always been a conflict area between India and Pakistan since 1947 when both these countries got freedom from the British rule. In order to stake their claims over Kashmir, India and Pakistan have fought two bloody wars in 1965 and 1971, besides incessant skirmishes between the rival armies.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.
Photo courtesy: Imran Khan / PTI
