Daily Times

While advising the nation to ward off pessimism in hard times, Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday declared that the whole Pakistani nation will keep standing for the just rights of the oppressed eight million Kashmiris who have been bracing the worst kind of curfew and atrocities in Indian-held Kashmir.

“Whether the world stands for Kashmiris or not, the whole Pakistani nation is standing for the Kashmiri people. Because raising voice for their rights is also a kind of Jihad,” the prime minister said soon after his arrival at the Islamabad International Airport from New York, where he attended 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). He said the worst kind of oppression is being unleashed against eight million innocent Kashmiris in the occupied valley which has been put under complete lockdown by the Indian forces. “I want to tell you one thing: there may be ups and downs in such efforts; there may be good and bad times, but you should not be distressed in bad times because the Kashmiris are looking towards you,” he told a huge crowd that had gathered at the airport to greet him with welcoming banners, placards and flags.

The prime minister, accompanied by members of his delegation and the party leaders, said with such continued support from the Pakistani nation, the Kashmiris will soon win their freedom from the illegal Indian occupation. “Kashmiri women, children and old are all looking towards us. As ambassador for the Kashmiris, I will continue exposing anti-Muslims steps and designs against Kashmiris by Modi’s fascist government at all forums,” he resolved.

The prime minister thanked the nation for their prayers in the difficult times in which he presented the case for Kashmiris before the United Nations. He, particularly, thanked his wife Bushra Begum for her prayers. He said that he has kept reminding all the people working with him for the last many decades about continuity in making efforts for a cause, which will ultimately be rewarded by Allah Almighty.

At the airport, the prime minister was warmly received by the federal ministers, Governor Sindh Imran Ismail, Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shah Farman, party leaders, workers and a larger number of people.

A large number of enthusiastic residents from the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad and from other parts of the country including Kashmiris had started converging at the airport in the afternoon to get a glimpse of their beloved leader and were keen to hear from him.

Carrying banners, placards, party, national and Azad Jammu and Kashmir flags, as welcoming gestures, they kept on chanting slogans to greet and hail their leader who had very effectively advocated the Kashmir issue at the UNGA, besides addressing other looming issues of Islamphobia, global warming and money laundering.

During his stay in New York, the prime minister held wide-ranging talks with various heads of the governments and political leaders, including US President Donald Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, UK Premier Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, UN secretary general and others on the sidelines of 74th session of the UNGA. On the sidelines of the UNGA, he also spoke at various international think tanks and interacted with the global media.

The prime minister departed from New York on Saturday onboard Saudi Airlines flight number SV20 and reached Jeddah earlier in the day, where he had a brief layover.
On Friday evening, the prime minister had taken off from New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport in a special jet placed at his disposal by the Saudi government, but it flew back in a couple of hours to have a technical fault fixed. The prime minister, who led the Pakistan delegation at the UNGA, had waited at the airport for some time while technicians tried to fix the fault, but more work was needed and they decided to complete it by Saturday morning. However, later the prime minister decided to board a commercial flight from New York to Jeddah.