Jammu & Kashmir is not a part of India; it never will be: Pakistan tells UNGA

NEW YORK - India has no claim to Jammu and Kashmir than that of a military occupier, said Pakistan's representative Zulqarnain Chheena while exercising Pakistan's right of reply to the statement by the representative of India at the UN General Assembly session.

The representative said that the state of Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory and India is compelled to use naked force to impose its occupation on an unwilling and oppressed people.

He said as decreed by the Security Council, the final disposition of the state will be made in accordance with the will of the people expressed through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite conducted under the auspices of the United Nations (UN).

The representative said that the Kashmiri struggle for self-determination seeks to realize the implementation of the resolutions of the Security Council in exercise of their inalienable right to self-determination, adding that the Kashmiris have a legitimate right to resist Indian occupation by all means at their disposal.

Zulqarnain Chheena said Kashmir will be free one day. This is not only a lesson of history; it is also an imperative of justice. He said the Kashmiris are not alone in their just struggle. The people of Pakistan, people of the Islamic world, indeed, all freedom-loving people, are with the Kashmiris. 

Pakistan's representative said the Indian diatribe was another shameful attempt to deflect attention from the real issues. India cannot escape accountability for its crimes in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and against its own Muslims and other minorities.

India is also actively involved in orchestrating, financing and providing logistical support to terrorist organizations, like TTP and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar to target Pakistan from across our borders, he said. Commander Kulbhushan Yadav, an Indian intelligence agent, captured by Pakistan, has confessed that he was organizing and supporting these criminal groups to perpetrate terrorism in Pakistan.

Zulqarnain Chheena said Pakistan and our entire region faces Hindutva terrorism. The BJP-RSS extremists continue to espouse the fiction of "Akhand Bharat" where minorities either become second class citizens or forced to convert to Hinduism.