MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has expressed dismay over a statement of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) president in which she said Kashmir was not on the Council agenda this month.

Indian media had quoted Karen Pierce, Permanent Representative of the UK to the UN and President of the Security Council for November, as saying at a presser on Friday that the Council would not be discussing the issue of Kashmir this month.

“No, we don’t have anything scheduled on Kashmir,” Ms Pierce had said, after she was asked by a Syrian reporter if any meeting or discussion was scheduled on Kashmir during Britain’s Presidency of the Council.

Taking exception to her statement, AJK President Masood Khan tweeted: “If the UNSC does not discuss Kashmir now, then when? Will the Council meet when the Kashmiris have been finished off? That would be a travesty of justice and a dereliction of obligations under UN Charter.”

Later, in a statement he expressed surprise over Pierce’s assertion that the Security Council could not discuss Kashmir conflict because it had already been discussed.

The AJK President maintained that it was the basic responsibility of the Security Council to frequently convene its sessions on Kashmir issue until and unless some practicable and decisive solution to this long outstanding issue came to light.

“Since India’s actions of Aug 5 in occupied Kashmir, the situation in the region is deteriorating with every passing day,” he said.

Mr Khan noted that a few days ago India had bifurcated the state, and in doing so it had not only attacked the integrity of the state but had also taken a practical step to colonise the Muslim majority territory and convert it into a Hindu entity through ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Muslims.

Under the UN Charter, he reminded, the Security Council was also obliged to not only protect fundamental rights of the Kashmir people but also prevent their systematic genocide and ethnic cleansing at the hands of an occupation force.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2019