Maleeha assails India for 'mass blinding in occupied Kashmir'

NEW YORK: Pakistan’s top diplomat Maleeha Lodhi on Tuesday denounced the aggressive use of pellet guns on peaceful protesters by Indian forces in India held Kashmir as first mass blinding in human history.

Speaking at the General Assembly’s Special Political and Decolonization (Fourth) Committee, she said India is waging war crimes against young innocent Kashmiris, leaving them sightless and maimed for life.

“This has been aptly described as the first mass blinding in human history, which has laid bare the persistent failure of the United Nations, she said.

Lodhi told the United Nations that since 70 years India has been preventing Kashmiris from exercising their basic and absolute right to self-determination through force and fraud.

She said deployment of tens of thousands of Indian troops in occupied Kashmir has been aimed to suppress the legitimate freedom struggle of Kashmiri people.

India , she said, “uses all methods from barbaric violence and extreme cruelty to fraudulent elections to deprive Kashmiris of their right to self-determination and perpetuate its unlawful occupation”.

Ambassador Lodhi asserted that none of this has trampled Kashmiris’ longing for freedom from the occupation, adding that the people of Jammu and Kashmir will continue their struggle for right to self-determination with courage and conviction.

The Pakistani envoy reminded the world body that the right of Kashmiri people to self-determination has been recognized and promised to them by the UN Security Council and by both India and Pakistan.

“But they are still waiting for the UN to fulfill its promise of holding a UN supervised Plebiscite to enable them to determine their political destiny”, she said.

Reaffirming Kashmir’s status as a disputed territory, Lodhi said  that contrary to Indian claims, Jammu and Kashmir never was and never can be an integral part of India.