Maleeha Lodhi censures India for ‘mass blinding’ in Kashmir

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN Maleeha Lodhi condemned India on Tuesday for the aggressive use of pellet guns against peaceful protestors in occupied Kashmir, calling the act as "first mass blinding in human history."

While addressing the General Assembly's Special Political and Decolonization (Fourth) Committee, Lodhi said that India is committing ‘war crimes’ which have left the young generation sightless and maimed for life.

“This has been aptly described as the first mass blinding in human history”, said the Pakistani ambassador to the UN, according to an official press release.

She said that the decolonisation agenda of the UN will remain unfulfilled without peaceful resolution of one of the longest disputes of all time.

“This represents the most persistent failure of the United Nations”, Lodhi stated.

She further mentioned that since 70 years India has been preventing the Kashmiris from excercising their fundamental and inalienable right to self-determination through ‘force and fraud’.

According to the press release, she said that the deployment of tens of thousands of Indian troops in the occupied territory is primarily aimed at suppressing the legitimate freedom of the people.

“India uses all methods from barbaric violence and extreme cruelty to fraudulent elections to deprive the Kashmiris of their right to self-determination and perpetuate its unlawful occupation”, she stated.

The people of Jammu and Kashmir will continue to wage the struggle for their right to self-determination with courage and conviction, said the Pakistani envoy.

The yearning and aspiration of the Kashmiri people for freedom from the occupation remain unbeaten, she added.

Ambassador Lodhi asked the UN to fulfill its promise of holding a UN-supervised plebiscite in order ‘to enable Kashmiris to determine their political destiny’.

Ambassador Lodhi while highlighting the plight of the Palestinians, said that Pakistan will continue its support for the just struggle of the Palestinian people for freedom.

While denouncing the illegal policy of settlement construction, she said that a strong and viable state of Palestine was the only guarantor of peace in the region, she said.

She said that the continued existence of colonialism in any form was contrary to the UN Charter and to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“The UN has a moral responsibility in this regard and we must all work toward eliminating the remaining vestiges of colonialism”, she said in her concluding remarks.