UNSC obligated to resolve lingering Kashmir dispute: Maleeha

NEW YORK: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi says the UN Security Council has an obligation to resolve the decades-old Kashmir problem by implementing its own resolutions that pledged the right of self-determination to the Kashmiri people to decide their destiny.

In an interview with Al-Arabiya television, she said the whole world subscribes to the principle of self-determination and why should it be denied to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and, what we ask, are they denied because they are Muslims.

Maleeha Lodhi urged the international community that it should respond to the fast deteriorating situation in occupied Kashmir because it poses a danger to peace and security of the South Asian region.

She said that Pakistan believes it also endangered international peace and that the 15-member Council should live up to its responsibility.

She called India’s decision to revoke Kashmir’s special status as illegal and illegitimate.

She said Security Council acknowledges the fact that it is an international dispute when the 15-member body met recently.

Replying to a question, Ambassador Lodhi said, “there has been human rights crisis for seven decades in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and what has happened more recently means that the human rights crisis has been further aggravated and exacerbated.

She said there is a communication blackout, people cannot communicate with anybody, telephone lines are not working, the Internet has been suspended, people are not allowed to go out and pray.

Maleeha Lodhi said over 700,000 Indian troops have been deployed and an additional number of troops have also been sent to the valley.

She said that an occupying power is using all instruments of repression, to subdue the people of Jammu and Kashmir and yet we also know from reports that we are receiving, and these are international media outlets receiving these reports, that over 500 protest demonstrations have already been held in the last 3 to 4 weeks, so people are resisting the kind of state terrorism that has been inflicted upon them.

She said Pakistan has raised the grave situation with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and at the Security Council.

She said we would like to see a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute and We would like to see a negotiated settlement and we would also like to see the UN live up to its responsibility.

About US President Donald Trump’s statement that India and Pakistan can solve Kashmir problem on their own, the Pakistani envoy said that New Delhi had suspended the bilateral dialogue over three years ago.

She said that India refuses to talk to Pakistan and in any case, the bilateral track never limited Pakistan from raising the issue internationally because it is an international dispute and the Security Council has an obligation.”