WASHINGTON: Federal Minister for Interior Ahsan Iqbal vowed to continue supporting the Kashmiris’ struggle for freedom at a Tuesday night event at the Pakistan Embassy, hours after the country faced severe criticism at a US Senate hearing.

“Pakistan will continue to support Kashmiris in their struggle for self-determination,” said the minister at a Kashmir Day event at the Pakistan Embassy.

Paying rich tributes to thousands of innocent Kashmiris who have lost their lives at the hands of the Indian occupation forces, the minister said that Pakistan has always provided moral, diplomatic and political support to the Kashmiri people and would continue to “urge the international community to urge India to stop its barbaric occupation of Kashmir”.

Ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry noted that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute “remains the most significant issue that must be resolved for achieving durable peace in South Asia”.

Their audience, mostly Pakistanis with some Kashmiris from both sides of the LoC, watched with a sense of helplessness as the embassy later showed a documentary on Indian atrocities in Kashmir.

Iman Malik, of the United States Institute of Peace, was the evening’s only speaker who highlighted a bitter truth: How India has successfully depicted Pakistan as a supporter of terrorism. Pakistan’s narrative, she argued, was no more heard with the interest and sincerity as it was only a few years ago.

And the endorsement of her views came at a hearing of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier on Tuesday where American officials and lawmakers both urged Pakis­tan to target “all terrorist groups operating within its territory, without distinction”. Some of these, they said, launched attacks into Afghanistan and others operated in India.

Unfazed by this criticism, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal expressed strong solidarity with the Kashmiri people in their struggle for self-determination, reminding them that Pakistan had and would always continue to support their struggle.

He lauded the courage of the Kashmiri people, who, he said, had endured the blatant human rights violations perpetrated by the occupying Indian forces in the Kashmir valley in the last seven decades.

Ambassador Chaudhary reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to the peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and according to aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

A special song was screened at the event that portrayed the spirit of courage, resilience and determination of the Kashmiri people in the face of adversity.

Sardar Zulfiqar Khan, representative of the Kashmiri American community, also assured the audience that Indian atrocities and indifference of the international community had not dampened the spirit of the Kashmiri people.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2018