UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan and India clashed Friday at the United Nations as Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan called the rival of a “reign of terror” on Muslims, drawing a stern rebuke.
PM’s speech to the annual summit was loaded as he accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of a plan to “purge India of Muslims.”
“The worst and most pervasive form of Islamophobia now rules India,” PM said in an address, delivered by video due to Covid-19 precautions.
“The hate-filled Hindutva ideology, propagated by the fascist RSS-BJP regime, has unleashed a reign of fear and violence against India’s 200 million-strong Muslim community,” he said.
PM Imran was referring to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and the affiliated Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a century-old Hindu revivalist movement with a paramilitary component.
Under Modi, India has rescinded the illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), its only Muslim-majority region, pushed through a citizenship law that critics call discriminatory and has witnessed repeated flare-ups of religious-based violence.
Speaking on the day Modi was visiting the White House, PM Khan said commercial interests with billion-plus India were allowing it to “get away with human rights abuses with complete impunity.”
Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has stressed the need for the world to recognise that the “only way” forward when it comes to Afghanistan is to “strengthen and stabilise the current government”.
Addressing the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) via video link, he said if the world community incentivises the new Afghan government, it will be a win-win situation for everyone. He said that the Taliban have promised to respect human rights, have an inclusive government and not to allow their soil to be used by terrorists.
The premier pointed out that this is a critical time for Afghanistan. If we neglect Afghanistan right now, according to the UN, half the people of Afghanistan are already vulnerable, and by next year almost ninety per cent of the people in Afghanistan will go below the poverty line.
PM Khan said there is a huge humanitarian crisis looming ahead and this will have serious repercussions not just for the neighbours of Afghanistan but everywhere.
He urged the UN Secretary-General to mobilize the international community for the humanitarian assistance of the Afghan people.
Narrating in detail the impact of the war on terror and Afghan conflict on Pakistan, Imran Khan said Pakistan suffered 80,000 casualties and a loss of $150 billion to the economy.
Imran Khan said Pakistan suffered so much was because it became an ally of the US coalition in the war in Afghanistan. There were attacks being conducted from the Afghan soil into Pakistan. He said there should have been a word of appreciation, regretting rather than appreciation, we are blamed for the turn of events in Afghanistan.
Occupied Kashmir
Alluding to Indian atrocities and oppression in the illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the prime minister said India is engaged in efforts to change the demographic structure of the occupied territory and transform it from a Muslim majority into a Muslim minority.
PM Imran maintained that the Indian actions violate the resolutions of the UN Security Council on Jammu and Kashmir.
The resolutions clearly prescribe that the final disposition of the disputed territory should be decided by its people, through a free and impartial plebiscite held under the UN auspices.
