NEW DELHI: Two days after praising India and its independent foreign policy, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has changed tack and lashed out at it while raking up the Kashmir issue.
He was speaking at the 48th meeting of foreign ministers of members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad.
"India is changing the demographic structure of the occupied territory [Jammu and Kashmir] in complete contravention of the fourth Geneva Convention. India is doing so by bringing settlers from outside,” he alleged while addressing the OIC meet.
“We have failed both the Palestinians and the people of Kashmir. I am sad to say that we have been able to make no impact at all,” Imran Khan said.
Imran also said that Muslim nations had not acted to stop the narrative of 'Islamic terrorism', which went unchecked after the 9/11 attacks. Imran referred to the shooting at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019 and claimed it was a
result of stereotyping of Muslims into “moderate” and “radical” categories.
“Once that happens, how is the man in the street in Western countries, how is he supposed to differentiate between a moderate Muslim and a radical Muslim? Hence, this man walks into a mosque and shoots everyone he could,” Imran said.
The two-day meeting of the OIC foreign ministers will focus on the theme of “building partnerships for unity, justice and development”. Forty-six of the 57 OIC member states are being represented at the ministerial level.
Interestingly, in a first, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, attended this meet on Tuesday. Though mention was made of Palestine and other Muslim nations like Syria regarding human rights violations, there was no mention of the Uyghurs.