Daily Times

A day after the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) meeting, Prime Minister Imran Khan welcomed the initiative by the world body regarding the situation in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Taking to Twitter, the premier noted that it was for the first time in over five decades that the “world’s highest diplomatic forum” had taken up the issue of occupied Kashmir and the serious situation prevailing there.

“There are 11 UNSC resolutions reiterating the Kashmiris right to self-determination. And the UNSC meeting was a reaffirmation of these resolutions,” the prime minister wrote.

The prime minister also added that the world body recognised the suffering of the Kashmiri people at the hands of Indian occupying forces.

The PM Imran added that it is the responsibility of the Security Council to resolve the dispute.

Although the council did not agree on a statement, China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun summed up the discussions, expressing serious concern over the situation.

“The UNSC members are concerned about the human rights situation there and they (want) the parties concerned to refrain from taking any unilateral action that might further aggravate the tension there since the situation is already very tense and very dangerous,” he said.

Pakistan’s Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi said the meeting brought the Kashmir dispute back to the world’s most influential panel and also highlighted the atrocities Indian troops are committing in the occupied region.

“The voice of the Kashmiri people resonated in the chambers of the world’s highest diplomatic forum today,” she said. “The whole world is discussing the occupied state. This is an international dispute.”

India’s envoy to the UN Syed Akbaruddin on Friday admitted that Indian-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir was a disputed territory and New Delhi was conditionally ready to engage with Islamabad over the matter.

India has regularly blocked discussion on Occupied Kashmir at the UN because it considers the matter an ‘internal affair’.