UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to take cognisance of the compelling evidence of India’s crimes in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and to hold accountable the Indian officials and personnel responsible for these crimes.

Speaking in a Security Council debate on “Protection of civilians in armed conflict”, Ambassador Munir Akram accused India of financing, sponsoring and supporting terrorist attacks against Pakistan, including from the territory of Afghanistan.

“India has funded and supported UNSC listed terrorist entities to carry out cross-border terrorist attacks against Pakistani military and civilian targets,” he said, citing a 2020 attack on the Karachi Stock Exchange, a recent terrorist attack in Lahore and the killing of Chinese and Pakistani engineers at Dasu last year.

Pakistan released a comprehensive and well-researched dossier last year on India’s involvement in terrorist attacks inside Pakistan and on the crimes committed by Indian officials in occupied Kashmir. The report included audio and video evidence of 3,432 cases of war crimes perpetrated by senior officers of the Indian occupying forces since 1989.

Responding to Pakistan’s statement, India claimed that “the entire Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh were, are and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India, irrespective of what the representative of Pakistan believes”. He also repeated New Delhi’s claim that Azad Kashmir too belonged to India and urged Pakistan to “immediately vacate all areas” under its control.

In a counter-response, Pakistan rejected India’s claims and reminded the Security Council that terrorism in South Asia originated from India.

“They have sponsored terrorism in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and all other neighbours and history will attest to that,” he said.

At a news briefing in New York earlier this week, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres clarified that the United Nations still regarded Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed territory and this dispute needs to be resolved in accordance with UN resolutions passed since the beginning of the discord more than 70 years ago.

“We have, as you know, a peacekeeping operation there. We are of course committed,” the UN chief said, recalling that he has offered his “good offices” several times to resolve this dispute.

“And we hope that this is something that can be solved peacefully and that the situation in Kashmir is a situation in which human rights are respected and in which people can live in peace and security,” Mr Guterres said.

The Pakistani envoy also underlined the UN position on Jammu and Kashmir, noting that the Security Council still recognised this as an issue that needs to be decided by its people through a free and fair plebiscite conducted under the auspices of the United Nations.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2022