Daily Times

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday while completely ruling out any prospects for resumption of dialogue with its armed nuclear neighbour led by ‘extreme right wing, racist and fascist Bharatiya Janata Party’ said that India is trying to bankrupt Pakistan and push it into the blacklist of Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

In an exclusive interview with Al-Jazeera TV, the prime minister said after assuming office in August 2018, his government tried to start dialogue with its neighbour and sort out all differences including the core issue of Kashmir through a political settlement, but they pulled back after realizing that Modi-led government has an agenda to push Pakistan into a disaster. “No question of talking to Indian government right now after it revoked Article 370 of its constitution and annexed Kashmir illegally against the UNSC resolutions. They not only unilaterally violated the international laws, but also its own laws,” he said, adding the UN resolution call for plebiscite in the occupied valley so that Kashmiris could determine their own fate.

The prime minister said the two countries have similar problems including climate change but their sincere urge for dialogue was misinterpreted. “The BJP extreme right wing, racist and fascist government is treating us as if we were scared of them. They took our peace gesture as an appeasement,” he added.

The prime minister said India is more or less conducting genocide, a sort of racial attack against Muslims and minorities, never witnessed in the history after Nazi’s Germany. “About eight million Muslims in Kashmir have been under siege for almost six weeks now. The developments have made the region as a flashpoint as India can do anything like it did after the Pulwama attack to divert world’s attention from its illegal annexation of the occupied valley and genocide of the Kashmiri Muslims,” he said. “They will try to blame Pakistan and can do what they did in last February, and Pakistan has fears that such incident can happen again,” he added.

Clarifying a question, the prime minister maintained that there should be no confusion over his statement that Pakistan will never start a war. “I’m pacifist and antiwar. I am clear about it,” he said, cautioning that if two nuclear armed countries fight a conventional war, there is every possibility that it can end up into a nuclear conflict, which is unthinkable. “In that case, such a conflict will have far reaching consequences going beyond the Indian sub-continent,” he said. “If the international community failed to resolve Kashmir issue, it will have impact upon the entire world and the entire world markets,” he emphasised.

The prime minister said Islamabad will approach all the international forums to highlight the plight of Kashmiri people and the illegal and unilateral steps taken by India. “They must act now as the situation will have the potential to snowball into a disaster spilling beyond the Indian sub-continent,” he reiterated.

The prime minister said they will be urging the world powers like US, Russia and the European countries to play their role in resolving the issue, and mentioned that China has been very supportive to Pakistan.

About US President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate between Pakistan and India, Prime Minister Khan said Islamabad is really thankful to him for his offer, elaborating that when US president seriously intervened in an issue, there will be some sort of resolution. “Secondly, if the US does not directly intervene, it has a role in the United Nations and the Security Council to exercise,” he said. “India is stone walling this suggestion because it knows that once the international community is involved, it will insist upon implementing the exercise of right to self-determination by the Kashmiri people,” he added.