‘Waiting for the day Kashmir joins Pak’

Pakistanis are waiting for the day when Jammu and Kashmir becomes a part of Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif declared on Friday. In his first public address following his return from London after open heart surgery in May, Sharif urged Kashmiris in Pakistan “not to forget those in (Indian) held Kashmir who are sacrificing their lives to their movement for freedom.

“Their movement for freedom cannot be stopped and it will be successful. You are aware of how they are being beaten and killed. All our prayers are with them and we are waiting for the day Kashmir becomes Pakistan,” the Dawn quoted him as saying.  Sharif spoke after his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz won a landslide victory in elections to the “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” assembly held a day earlier.

The PML-N is set to form the next government in Pakistani Kashmir, whose official name is “Azad Jammu and Kashmir”. “The day is not far when Jammu and Kashmir will become Pakistan,” the Prime Minister said, adding that those in Indian Kashmir were facing the “worst violations of human rights”. 

New Delhi accuses Islamabad of arming and training militants fighting to secede Jammu and Kashmir from India. Pakistan says it only provides moral and diplomatic backing to the separatist campaign.

Pakistan has taken a stridently anti-India line since mass protests erupted in the Kashmir Valley after the July 8 killing by Indian security forces of militant commander Burhan Wani. Street clashes between those protesting Wani’s killing and the security forces have left over 45 people dead and hundreds injured. Many have been blinded by pellets used by the security forces. He also expressed concern over the law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir during a high-level meeting here called to discuss regional security.

In the meeting, Sharif and Pakistan Army chief General Raheel Sharif, were briefed on the situation in Kashmir and Afghanistan, Dawn online quoted senior Foreign Office sources as saying.

The meeting condemned “the oppression of the Indian security forces over innocent Kashmiris” protesting against the violence in the region, a Prime Minister’s House statement said. Sharif said the 

“brutal use of force is a blatant violation of fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people which no civilised society permits”.

Sharif maintained that the Indian attempts to claim the situation in Kashmir an internal matter were “factually incorrect, legally untenable and a violation of international law and UN Security Council resolutions”, the statement said.

The only solution to the Kashmir issue was “early implementation of UNSC resolutions — a fair and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices”, he said. 

The statement said Pakistan “will continue to provide diplomatic, political and moral support” to the people of Kashmir for the realisation of their fundamental right to self-determination. The meeting resolved to approach the UN Human Rights Council to send a fact-finding mission to Kashmir to “investigate the slaughter of innocent civilians and impose a ban on the use of pellet guns for dispersing people”. It called upon the international community to condemn human rights violations by Indian security forces.

The meeting comes a day after India slammed Pakistan over its “deplorable meddling” in the internal affairs of the country and asked it to “vacate its illegal occupation of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir”.

Pakistan observed “Kashmir’s Accession to Pakistan Day” on July 19, followed by “Black Day” on July 20 over the killing of Hizbul Mujaheedin commander Burhan Wani. India in a statement on 

Thursday also strongly condemned the “encouragement and support” which “terrorists and their activities receive from Pakistan’s state”.

At least 45 people have been killed and hundreds injured in Jammu and Kashmir following the July 8 killing of Wani in a gunfight with the security forces.