Kashmir not Indian internal matter but internationally recognized dispute: envoy

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday categorically made it clear at the United Nations that Occupied Jammu and Kashmir was neither an internal matter nor integral part of India but an internationally recognized dispute by the United Nation’s Security Council.

Exercising his right to reply in response to comments made by the Indian delegate during the ongoing 31st Session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, Pakistan’s Deputy Permanent Representative to United Nations Office, Aamar Aftab Qureshi said that for durable peace, Kashmir dispute needed to be resolved, said a press release received here.

He said history, legal and political realities could not be changed by fabrication, lies and false claims over occupied territories.

The most egregious form of state terrorism by India was being perpetrated in Jammu and Kashmir and independent human rights organizations had confirmed the existence of over 6,000 unnamed mass graves in Indian Occupied Kashmir, he said.

The Deputy Representative of Pakistan emphasized that Kashmiris were terrorists to the Indian authorities as Nelson Mandela was to the apartheid regime. Madiba’s chains were broken because of the truth he espoused as the chains of the Kashmiri people will break one day.

Earlier on Friday, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations in Geneva, Ambassador Tehmina Janjua in her statement at the Council had forcefully raised the issue of right to self-determination for the people of Jammu and Kashmir saying it was the most fundamental right.

She reiterated Pakistan’s principled position, calling for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute, in accordance with the UNSC resolutions as well as aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Ambassador said that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute was one of the oldest, outstanding items on the United Nations Security Council agenda and it needed to be settled urgently.