NEW DELHI: A day ahead of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s address at the UN General Assembly, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday raked up the Kashmir issue and sought to draw similarities between the situation in Kashmir and Palestine.
India normally uses its right to reply to give it back to Pakistan, adding Kashmir is an inalienable part of India.
“Like the people of Palestine, the people of J&K, too, struggled for a century for their freedom and right to self-determination,” said Sharif in his UNGA address. He accused India of reneging on its commitments to implement the UN Security Council resolutions there.
“India’s policy of brutal coercion and oppression in Kashmir has ensured that Burhan Wani’s legacy continues to inspire the struggle and sacrifices of millions of Kashmiris. Inspired by the legitimacy of their epic struggle, they remain defiant,’’ claimed Sharif.
“In a classic settler-colonial project, India is seizing Kashmiri lands and properties and settling outsiders in J&K in their nefarious design to transform the Muslim majority into a minority,” he charged.
Sharif also alleged that India was expanding its military capabilities. He went on to accuse India of threatening to cross the Line of Control to seize Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
The Pakistani PM said while the escalation of Islamophobia is a troubling global development, its “most alarming manifestation of Islamophobia is the Hindu supremacist agenda in India.”
On the ongoing Gaza war, Sharif said, “This is not just a conflict. This is systematic slaughter of innocent people of Palestine...we must act now and demand an immediate end to this bloodshed.” He said humanity was diminished when the endless suffering of Palestinians was ignored.
Significantly, Turkiye President Recap Tayyip Erdogan did not mention Kashmir in his UNGA address this year, the first time he has skipped it since Article 370 was read down in 2019. The focus of his speech this year was the humanitarian situation in Gaza.