Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has urged United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to facilitate the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, ensuring the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination. Shehbaz Sharif in a meeting held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, expressed Pakistan’s deep concerns over India’s actions in the occupied region, stressing the need for a peaceful resolution to achieve stability in South Asia. India’s orchestration of assembly elections in occupied Jammu and Kashmir aims to mislead international opinion and propagate a false narrative of normalcy. The region’s grim situation is a matter of global significance. UNSC resolutions affirm that Jammu and Kashmir’s final disposition must be determined through a free and impartial plebiscite under UN auspices. The world needs to recognize restrictions on accessing local populations, support a UN fact-finding mission in Kashmir, permit international human rights organizations to monitor violations, and secure the early release of political leaders, activists, and human rights defenders. Despite the substantial presence of Indian forces and severe restrictions on movement and communication, New Delhi continues to depict the resistance movement in the valley as terrorism, using this narrative to justify an even tighter grip on the region. This year alone, India has claimed at least five attacks, attributing them to what it describes as a new wave of insurgency in the occupied territory, which Modi is determined to integrate fully into the country, against the will of its people. The Indian reports gloss over the plight of Kashmiris killed or stripped of their rights. The founding president of Genocide Watch, Dr. Gregory Stanton says Kashmiris face an extreme case of persecution by the Modi administration that could potentially escalate into genocide. Taking what experts describe, as a page from Benjamin Netanyahu’s playbook against Hamas, Modi and his operatives in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) now appear to be attempting to lay the groundwork for a Gaza-style operation in the territory. Knowing that Benjamin Netanyahu is getting away with genocide in Gaza, Modi seems emboldened and may even be motivated to use the insurgency pretext to launch a full-scale military operation inside the occupied territory. The world cannot overlook the Modi administration’s efforts to alter the demographic landscape of the Muslim-majority Himalayan region through domicile rights for Indian citizens, which have facilitated the settlement of Hindus in the area and will ultimately dilute the Muslim claim. Any human being denied dignity, freedom, and territory will do what the Kashmiris are doing. According to Human Rights Watch, the occupied territory has experienced its most severe crackdown by New Delhi’s forces. In 2023, the digital rights group Access Now reported 187 Internet shutdowns worldwide, with India leading the list at 84, 49 of them in IIOJK. Since the revocation of its special status in 2019, the region has experienced an unprecedented clampdown, with rights groups warning that new laws and policies are to appear soon to marginalize and oppress Muslims in IIOJK. Narendra Modi is effectively building a narrative that casts Kashmiris as Muslim terrorists opposed to peace. Given the number of reports from this year alone, it appears that India’s machinery is accelerating its efforts to construct a negative image of the people of IIOJK, likely to legitimize any future aggressive actions against them. The narrative India is pushing aims to paint members of the Kashmiri freedom movement as terrorists. When asked about accusations of Kashmiri fighters employing advanced weaponry, Pir Ali Raza Bukhari, a religious scholar and former member of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly, who holds permanent representative status at the United Nations, said that they serve to divert attention from India’s ongoing human rights violations in the region.
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