WASHINGTON (92 News) – Pakistan’s Ambassador to US Asad Majeed has urged that the Trump administration must pressurize India to end curfew in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IoK).
In an interview with ‘
The Washington Times’, Asad Majeed asked the US and the international community “must do more” to pressure India to end its
militarized curfew over Kashmir, adding that India’s prime minister has turned a vast section of the disputed Muslim majority region into “practically a concentration camp.”
Lockdown without access to medicine
The Pakistani ambassador lamented that millions of people inside IoK have been on
lockdown without access to medicine or electricity, let alone telephones and internet, for nearly a month since the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked the area’s special constitutional status.
“Thousands are being put in prison. The world needs to be aware,” Asad Majeed said. He also weighed in on the prospect of a breakthrough in US peace talks with the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan and on Islamabad’s delicate balancing act as a partner of both China and the US.
Praises US President Donald Trump
The ambassador praised US President Donald Trump for not taking sides in the decades-old conflict over the territory, but he said more must be done. He said no other country has the same clout or influence as the US to basically urge India, to nudge India.
“India has actually laid down the ground to influence the demography of the state. They want to alter the ethnic composition of the state,” he maintained.
Highlights Modi's history
Referring to the purpose of Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Asad Majeed highlighted that the BJP government is closely aligned with Hindu nationalists who seek erect India into a historic Hindu homeland that has been ruled by invaders for centuries.
Highlighting Narendra Modi’s history as the Chief Minister of India’s state of Gujarat, the Pakistani envoy shed light on 2002 Gujarat Massacre, when the Indian state was marred with violence between the Hindu and Muslim communities. Reports reveal that the massacre resulted in around 1000 deaths of Muslims, while 300 Hindus also died during the riots.
He said that these recent Indian measures in Kashmir are “not just about the dispute over land but the right of self-determination of the people, and I think what India has done is try to take away the identity of a people by reconstituting the territory, by redesigning areas.
