UN decolonization agenda incomplete without Kashmir solution: Maleeha

NEW YORK (92 News) – Outgoing Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to UN Maleeha Lodhi said that UN’s decolonization agenda would remain incomplete without a settlement of Kashmir issue based on Security Council resolutions. Speaking to the General Assembly’s Special Political and Decolonization (Fourth) Committee, Maleeha Lodhi said India illegally annexed Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, turning it into the world’s largest prison. Maleeha Lodhi said Pakistan will remain the voice of Kashmiris in all international forums especially the UN until justice is done and they are able to exercise their right to self-determination. It was Maleeha Lodhi’s third statement on Kashmir at the UN this week as she pressed on with her campaign to expose Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir. On the other hand, in Occupied Kashmir, the miseries of millions of residents of Kashmir Valley and Muslim majority areas of Jammu region continue unabated as the strict lockdown imposed by the Indian government completes 10 weeks, today. Shops and main markets are shut and public transport is off the roads in the Kashmir valley and Muslim majority areas of Jammu as a mark of protest to express resentment against Indian occupation. Though private vehicles are plying on the roads but in the absence of public transport, people find it difficult to get to the hospitals and move from one place to another to meet their loved ones. They can’t even easily communicate with their relatives and friends owing to gag on internet and cell phone services. The lockdown and ban on communications has virtually cut off the Kashmir Valley from the outside world. On the other hand, Indian civil rights activists talking to reporters in New Delhi urged the Indian government to restore Articles 370 and 35A as well as mobile and internet services, remove the restrictions on the movement of people in the Kashmir Valley and take steps to bring back normalcy in the territory.