Top left: Col (retd) Wes Martin; (right) Imtiaz Khan; center left: Dr Afzal Khan; (right) Senator Mushahid Hussain; bottom: Ambassador Masood Khan
Ambassador Masood Khan Calls for Diplomacy to Resolve Kashmir Conflict
By Elaine Pasquini
Washington: Kashmir Solidarity Day is observed in Pakistan and around the world on February 5 to show support for the people of Jammu and Kashmir living under illegal Indian occupation and to honor those who died attempting to free their homeland.
On this special day of remembrance, the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, DC hosted a distinguished panel of Kashmiri supporters around the world to discuss the issues and explore solutions to help Kashmiris reach their internationally recognized right of self-determination.
Masood Khan, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, noted the numerous commemorations held in front of parliaments and in community squares around the globe, along with many webinars, to convey the aspirations of the people of Kashmir and “show that the Kashmir issue is an issue which attracts the attention of the international community.”
A plebiscite needs be held in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions on the right to self-determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, the ambassador said.
The situation was static until August 5, 2019, when the Indian government repealed Articles 370 and 35A from its constitution thereby revoking Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.
“India usurped the territory…and has turned it into a subordinate territory,” undertaking massive efforts to change the demographics of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, he explained. According to unconfirmed but widely reported figures more than four million Hindus have been settled in that region to reduce the Muslim majority. Redistricting of electoral constituencies is ongoing to reduce the number of Muslim lawmakers in the Assembly, all while the occupying Indian forces are committing egregious human rights violations.
“The people of Jammu and Kashmir have never accepted these assemblies as legitimate bodies because they were created under occupation,” Ambassador Khan said. “They are trying to recreate a sham apparatus to reduce the representation of Muslims.”
Raising awareness of these human rights violations and illegal policies which “trample the wishes of 20 million people in a territory which is 75,000 square miles” is an important responsibility of Pakistan and the international community, he said.
“We should strive for [India] to come to the negotiating table, the ambassador stressed. “We’re not talking about war. We’re not talking about hostilities – we’re talking about diplomacy, negotiating at peace tables.”
Pakistani Senator Mushahid Hussain noted that the issue of self-determination for Kashmir is inextricably entwined with the durable peace, security and stability in South Asia. “I think that it is important that we as parliamentarians, opinion leaders and peace activists take this issue forward because this issue can otherwise spin out of control.”
The Pakistan parliament has been very proactive on the Kashmir issue, Hussain stressed. “Our commitment to the Kashmiri cause is absolutely unwavering,” and the issue demands more attention from the international community.
Afzal Khan, British Labor Party MP, affirmed the suffering of the Kashmiri people is getting worse by the day. India’s illegal and unilateral measures of amending its constitution in 2019 “ushered in a new level of oppression against the Kashmiri people,” he said. “We have seen now the unleashing of this reign of terror of an occupation force of…almost a million…making it the highest concentration of military anywhere in the world.”
While Indian forces have jailed almost the entire leadership of the Kashmiris and extrajudicial killings are routine – a reported 200 people were killed last year – the Indian government has failed to “break the will of the Kashmiri people,” he emphasized.
China, Pakistan and India are all nuclear powers, he pointed out, making the Kashmir issue a nuclear flashpoint which the UN and international community should respond to “with the same vigor as is applied to Ukraine…so there is no double standard,” he stated.
UK Parliament member Naz Shah, who is from Azad Kashmir, spoke of the plight of women in Jammu and Kashmir. “I know as a woman that the price that is paid is heaviest by women whether through children or economics – whatever is harsh is much harsher on women, children and the elderly,” she said.
As did all of the speakers, Shah stressed the need for global recognition of what is happening in India: the systematic ethnic cleansing of the Kashmiris, human rights abuses and redistricting of communities to reduce Muslin representation in parliament. “The world should be watching and taking note and we must work together,” she stated.
George Washington University professor Imtiaz Khan, a native of Indian-occupied Kashmir, speaks almost daily to his family who live there. “My family tells me they are being crushed…and are on the verge of extinction. February 5 is not the only black day in Kashmir,” he said. “Every day in Indian-occupied Kashmir is a black day.”
In a recorded message, British MP Lord Wajid Khan paid tribute to the Kashmiris who lost their lives in fighting for the Kashmiri cause and pledged to continue to raise their plight.
Also in a recorded statement, World Kashmir Freedom Movement President Muzzammil Ayyub Thakur stressed that Kashmiris, Pakistanis and Muslims in the diaspora must “demand the end to human rights violations committed by India, the reversal of the settler-colonial and demographic change projects, demilitarization, restoration of civil liberties, unfettered access for international observers and, most importantly, the recognition that Kashmir is a disputed territory leading to implementation of a plebiscite that offers the people of Indian-occupied Kashmir their right to self-determination.”
Thakur urged Pakistan to work closer with the diaspora. “Utilize us!” he exclaimed. “We have the competencies, capabilities and, more importantly, the firsthand experience and knowledge of ground realities.”
In closing, US Army Col (ret) Wes Martin, a security and defense analyst and a strong voice for Kashmiris, quoted the words of the Dalai Lama: “When we think of others, you no longer think of yourself. When we face problems, we can use our intelligence to overcome them. We never need to feel helpless.”
(Elaine Pasquini is a freelance journalist. Her reports appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and Nuze.Ink.)
