Prime Minister Imran Khan Wednesday said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has committed a ‘fatal blunder’ with his illegal and unilateral steps over the internationally recognised Kashmir dispute, which will ultimately pave the way for freedom of Indian-held Kashmir (IHK).
Addressing the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly to mark the Kashmir Solidarity Day, the prime minister said if Modi did not step back, his policies of racism and nationalism in the form of Hindutva will wreak havoc upon India. “The jinni of racism and nationalism when came out of bottle, it always wrecked destruction and spilled bloodshed,” he said, and referred to the genocide in Rwanda, of Jews in Germany and the Muslims in Myanmar.
The prime minister said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an extremist organization in India, had a philosophy directly inspired from Hitler’s Nazi as its founding father RS Golwalkar had great admiration for that philosophy. The organization, he said, had documented planning over ethnic cleansing of the Muslims in India. Even other minorities were not spared as evident from enactment of two most controversial citizenship pieces of legislation, he added.
The prime minister said the world is now acknowledging the destruction towards India is heading. He said Modi’s steps have provided an opportunity to them to highlight the Kashmir issue more fervently at the global forums. The world community, which was not realizing the scale of worst inhuman atrocities being perpetrated against the innocent Kashmiris, has now started criticizing India and expressing concerns over the human rights violations and lockdown of eight million Kashmiris, he added.
Imran Khan said the Bharatiya Janata Party’s election campaigns were based upon Pakistan bashing in which sentiments for Hindutva were whipped. But the world has understood the perilous situation as the Indian intellectuals are also raising their voices as they have also grasped the situation in India, he said.
The prime minister maintained that nations have to face ups and downs as the situations test their resolve and sharpen their ability to tackle the challenges. Those nations rise to prominence which overcome the difficult times.
Reaffirming his role as an ambassador for Kashmir, he said he has made every effort to highlight the issue at all forums, including the UN General Assembly, Geneva conference and during his interaction with US President Donald Trump and other heads of state. He said it is their responsibility to keep on apprising and reminding the world with more vigour of the grim situation in Kashmir, which has been turned into an open prison by India.
About his interaction with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the prime minister said during her preceding visit to New Delhi, she expressed her concerns over the situation in the occupied valley. He said he also told Canada’s Justin Trudeau to keep himself abreast about the situation in the occupied valley.
The prime minister said the European countries have now started realizing the alarming situation in India when they contemplated it with the horrifying outcome of Nazi’s philosophy there. For the first time in history, about 600 EU parliamentarians supported the resolution over Kashmir, besides US and UK parliamentarians have also raised their voices, he observed. Almost all the leading channels, newspapers and magazines in the West, he said, are expressing concerns over the grave threat which India has not only posed to the Kashmiris but to itself with such extremist policies. Under a systematic mechanism, minorities in India are being targeted, he said, adding the citizenship laws will directly affect 500 million people in India, including about 200 million Muslims.
The prime minister trashed Modi’s statement over war with Pakistan, saying that it is the result of his desperation from the internal turmoil. How a leader of a country can spell out such an irresponsible statement knowing well that both the countries are nuclear powers, he said, adding, “A normal person cannot utter such a statement. Modi did it only to please followers of RSS philosophy. He is in panic.”
The prime minister also cautioned that for diversion tactics from the internal havoc, the Indian government can stage a false flag operation like the one in the aftermath of Pulwama.
The prime minister maintained that the word ‘Islamic terrorism’ was used as propaganda and regretted that the Muslim leaders have never fully explained it. There is no relation between religion and terrorism, he said, and reminded the AJK legislators to be careful about India’s game plan. He also announced formation of a committee in consultation with the AJK government to further highlight the issue.
Earlier, AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider in his address said the day has assumed great significance after August 5 last year when the Indian government took illegal and unilateral steps to revoke the special status of Kashmir. Expressing gratitude to the government and the Pakistani nation for their full support, he assured that they will not let the national flag of Pakistan down.
Other legislators also addressed the assembly session highlighting the historic struggle for the right to self-determination as promised by the UN Security Council.
