Daily Times

Prime Minister Imran Khan Friday said the RSS inspired-leadership of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) is speaking about Kashmiris the way Nazis did to Jews.

In a tweet, the prime minister said such treatment is being meted out even in the 21st century towards the 200 million Muslims of Kashmir. He also shared a recent video clip of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy who in an interview openly spoke against Kashmiris denying their rights.

In the clip, Swamy can be seen claiming that most people in the country like their hardline approach. He also appears critical of Islamic ideology, saying, “If Muslims grow to 30 percent of total population, that country will be in danger.”

Separately, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said as the entire world is taking steps to counter coronavirus pandemic, India on the other hand remains focused on hitting at Kashmiris by violating the international laws and resolutions of the UN Security Council.

In a statement on the recent ‘Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Order 2020, the foreign minister said the move is yet another illegal step by India to settle non-Kashmiris in the occupied valley by changing the domicile laws. He said at present, the Kashmiri leadership and thousands of Kashmiri youth are detained in Indian jails, adding that the Indian government instead of providing them food and medicine is bringing changes to the domicile laws. He said India’s actions are a continuation of its illegal and unilateral steps since August 5, 2019, and constitute a violation of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, agreements between India and Pakistan, and the humanitarian norms.

Qureshi said he has informed the UN secretary general through a telephonic call about India’s illegal and unconstitutional step and called for taking urgent notice of the situation. Terming the step as ‘extremely controversial’, the foreign minister said it can lead to further deterioration of situation in the valley.

Meanwhile, the World Kashmir Awareness Forum (WKAF), a prominent Washington-based advocacy organization, has condemned India for introduction of an illegal law in Jammu and Kashmir that will change the disputed state’s Muslim-majority status at a time when the world is busy grappling with the deadly coronavirus.

In a statement issued on Friday, the forum called the ‘Jammu & Kashmir Reorganization Order, 2020’ tendentious and politically motivated. The statement called the law a ‘wanton display of disregard for the aspiration of the Kashmiris that is aimed at constitutional entrenchment of a Hindu majoritarian agenda to dispossess the people of Kashmir’. “These cynical attempts to seize the opportunity and take advantage of the prevailing global circumstances are reflective of the toxic and fascist mindset of the Hindutva regime in New Delhi,” it said. “With one voice,” WKAF said, “the Kashmiris across the globe have rejected these reprehensible attempts to change the demographic character of our nation, and resolved to counter India’s bigoted settler colonialism through peaceful resistance.” “The United Nations must remind India of the disputed nature of the occupied territory, and the need to implement the UN Security Council Resolutions on the issue,” the statement said.